What Happened?

On Tuesday night President of the United States Donald Trump tweeted, “Despite the constant negative press covfefe.” The mysterious word caused an eruption on social media, but the real news came Wednesday morning when several news sources reported that Trump will pull out of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

‘Covfefe’

Traditionally, the president’s use of social media as a communication platform is limited. That said, Trump has utilized Twitter as a podium to connect with followers before and throughout his presidential career.

Trump’s original tweet with the bizarre word was posted just after 9 p.m. Pacific Standard Time and as of publication time has 31,700 comments, 86,400 retweets and 108,000 likes. Trump tweeted five hours later, “Who can figure out the true meaning of “covfefe”??? Enjoy!” As of publication time, the tweet was taken off of his Twitter account.

It seemed like Trump attempted to own the mistake that was trending on all social media platforms late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning. Trump tweeted five more times following that, touching on topics from Russia to the Paris Accord. Trump has more than 31 million followers on Twitter and follows just 45 people.

Paris Agreement

According to CNN, the BBC and The New York Times, multiple United States senior officials confirmed that Trump would withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement.

While no official announcement has been made, Trump took to Twitter early Wednesday morning when he said, “I will be announcing my decision on the Paris Accord over the next few days. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

 According to the United Nations, the Paris agreement is a deal between 195 countries to mitigate and adapt greenhouse gas emissions in an attempt to stop the planet’s rising climate. According to the UN, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change originally began in 1992 in order to “find and implement ways to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to prevent dangerous changes in the climate system.”

According to the White House press website, the agreement was created in 2015 and went into effect on Nov. 4, 2016 while 195 countries signed the treaty and 145 ratified it thus far.

According to White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, Trump met with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt and he will meet with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson today, both of whom are on record as supporters of the agreement. Spicer said a decision was supposed to be made by early May but the White House administration decided to wait until after the G7 meeting in Sicily. At the meeting, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters that all of the countries in the G7 urged Trump to stay in the agreement.

The G7 is a group that consists of the US, Germany, Canada, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and Japan. The group originated in 1975 with six members before Canada became the seventh member in 1976, according to the UN.

Critics are afraid that if the United States pulls out of the agreement, other nations could follow suit, which would result in a rise in “planet-warming pollution,” according to The New York Times.

According to the EPA, the US is the world’s largest economy and the second largest greenhouse gas polluter behind only China.