Actress Debra Messing falsely accused President Donald Trump of “making money off his COVID” by selling a commemorative coin of him defeating the deadly virus.
“Trump is MAKING MONEY OFF OF HIS COVID. President Trump Defeats COVID Commemorative Coin. He is a malignant, vile, narcissistic Monster. #TrumpLied200KDied,” the Will & Grace star tweeted Sunday. Messing spread the rumor after The White House Gift Shop — a private business run by a man named Anthony Giannini — sent out an email advertisement on Sunday.
The White House Gift Shop is completely unaffiliated with the actual White House, and the White House is not a recipient of any of its sales.
The shop’s website states: “Located in the White House for Nearly 70 Years, WHGS is Now Privately & Permanently Endowed and Now Operates Independently of the U.S. Government by Official Transfer & Succession Rights from the U.S. Secret Service Benefit UD Fund & Now with Exclusive Trademark Protections Officially Granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.”
The White House Gift Shop and the White House has been conflated and then fact-checked multiple times in the past.
After the gift shop began selling commemorative coins for the White House’s presidential summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall looked into whether it was affiliated with the White House.
Marshall wrote in 2018: “So what has our investigation found? It seems pretty clear to me that The White House Gift Shop has no actual connection to the White House or the U.S. government.”
Marshall even did a follow-up that said: “Here’s the story. The White House Gift Shop is wholly owned by Giannini Strategic Enterprises, LLC located in an office on 301 Front St in Lititz, PA and incorporated in Pennsylvania. That’s where the store is located too. GSE is owned by Anthony Giannini, who is also the CEO and Executive Director of ‘The White House Gift Shop.’”
Business Insider also did a fact-check earlier this year in April, when the gift shop first started selling commemorative coins related to COVID. The piece is entitled: “No, the White House is not selling coronavirus-themed commemorative coins for $100.”
The piece said: “…as it turns out, the supposed “White House Gift Shop” coins aren’t made by the White House at all, but by a private, for-profit company incorporated in Lancaster, Pennsylvania which has no connection at all to the federal government.”
The piece noted that MSNBC’s Chris Hayes re-tweeted a post from Democratic strategist Travis Akers claiming “The White House gift shop is selling Coronavirus commemorative coins for $125. No, this is not a joke,” to his 2.1 million followers. Akers later posted a correction.
However, Hayes on Sunday retweeted a tweet from a journalist that said, “The White House Gift Shop is selling a ‘Donald J. Trump defeats Covid’ commemorative coin. You can pre-order it now for $100.” Some Twitter users replied to the tweet that it was “tacky” of the White House, apparently believing it was affiliated with the gift shop.
Breitbart News reached out to Twitter, noting that Debra Messing is spreading misinformation that President Trump is profiting from the sale of the coin by a private entity and asking if Twitter is taking any action against the misinformation one month from the presidential election. Breitbart News did not receive a response by press time.
In the lead-up to the election, Twitter has begun fact-checking Trump’s tweets, and is working on other tools to stop “misinformation,” according to the Verge.
However, Messing’s tweet — which was retweeted more than 1,800 times and liked more than 3,000 times — remains up on Twitter.
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