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US President Donald Trump's tweets could be preserved as presidential records if a Democratic Party politician's proposed COVFEFE Act becomes law.
Representative Mike Quigley of Illinois introduced the "Communications Over Various Feeds Electronically For Engagement" Act that would amend the Presidential Records Act and require the National Archives to store presidential tweets and other social media interactions.
The abbreviated name of the bill is a reference to Mr Trump's incomprehensible 'covfefe' Twitter post, which was widely ridiculed online.
"If the President is going to take to social media to make sudden public policy proclamations, we must ensure that these statements are documented and preserved for future reference," Mr Quigley, a member of the House intelligence committee, said in a statement.
"Tweets are powerful, and the President must be held accountable for every post," he said.
The law would bar the prolifically tweeting president from deleting his posts, as he has sometimes done.
This has inspired websites archiving his erased tweets.
The White House did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the proposed legislation.
Mr Trump, who has more than 32 million followers on Twitter for his eight-year-old personal profile, is known for posts that are sometimes riddled with spelling and grammar mistakes.
The 'covfefe' post remained on the internet for hours, spurring a wave of speculation about what Mr Trump had intended to say.
The message was later deleted, and his next communication that day made light of the tweet.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer, asked at a news briefing at the time whether people should be concerned about the covfefe tweet, said no and added: "I think the President and a small group of people know exactly what he meant."
Mr Spicer said last week that Mr Trump's tweets "are considered official statements by the President of the United States."
Reuters
Topics: donald-trump, world-politics, social-media, united-states