President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday morning that followers should purchase Fox News host Greg Gutfeld’s new book, generating criticism in the process.
“‘The Plus, Self-Help for People Who Hate Self-Help’, by the very smart and witty @greggutfeld, is on sale now. It is great, Canceling Cancel Culture. Make his book as successful as his T.V. Show. Buy it now!” Trump tweeted.
Gutfeld’s book was released Tuesday and is currently number seven on Amazon’s list of best-sellers.
Responses to the tweet were immediate: Mother Jones’ D.C. bureau chief David Corn called the president a “huckster-in-chief.”
Numerous observers pointed out that as Trump tweeted about a television host’s book, over 150,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus.
Huffington Post senior reporter Hayley Miller added, “I know everyone expects this of our president these days, but just a reminder that using your public office to endorse or promote products is unethical.”
The criticism comes less than two weeks after Trump’s daughter was lambasted for doing something similar. Ivanka Trump, first daughter and presidential advisor, tweeted a picture of herself holding Goya beans earlier this month that caused political observers like Fox News’ Jedediah Bila to question whether the post violated federal ethics standards.
At the beginning of July, the CEO of Goya praised the president, leading to an immediate political divide with a boycott on one side and a call to buy more Goya on the other. Ivanka waded into the political bean discourse, posting a picture of herself holding up a can next to a promotional, bilingual caption: “If it’s Goya, it has to be good. Si es Goya, tiene que ser bueno.”
“We can’t have people who work in administrations holding up products and promoting them. It’s unethical. I don’t care if you love or hate the product or stand with or against the product in times of controversy. No official administration rep should be doing product promotion,” tweeted Bila the next day.
On Wednesday, Gutfeld — who had a big July all around, as his “The Greg Gutfeld Show” was the second most-watched late-night show for the month with an average of 2.2 million viewers — had nothing further to say on Trump’s endorsement. He retweeted it.