Gift shop selling coin for Trump’s indictment is not affiliated with the White House

Is the White House putting out a special coin to commemorate former President Donald Trump’s indictment in a classified documents case?

Comments by U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., seemed to suggest as much.

"Outrage of the week" Cassidy said in a video he tweeted and posted on Facebook June 12. "The White House Gift Shop is putting out a commemorative coin for Donald Trump's indictment."

"Now whatever you think about it, whatever party you are, you gotta admit it's poor taste, That it's capitalizing upon something without his permission, I'm sure. It's the wrong thing to do. Have a sense of decency, White House Gift Shop," he said.

In a reply to the tweet, Cassidy linked to a WhiteHouseGiftShop.com page showing that it is accepting pre-orders for a coin commemorating Trump’s second indictment.

But Cassidy failed to clarify that this online vendor has no association with the actual White House. 

That lack of context led some users to quote-tweet his video with comments expressing outrage toward President Joe Biden. 

Although The White House Gift Shop sounds like the official gift shop of the White House, it’s not. Any historical ties it once had ended when a private company took ownership in 2012, Snopes reported.

The gift shop’s About Us page said the shop began as The White House Flower Fund, which President Harry S. Truman renamed The White House Police Benefit Fund on Sept. 9, 1946. Its objective then was to provide tokens to members who lost family members and to retiring White House Police officers.

According to its website, the gift shop was once in the White House basement but went online after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Anthony Giannini, the shop’s CEO, told PolitiFact in 2022 that the store was fully privatized.

According to U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records, the trademarks for "White House Gift Shop" and "White House Gift Shop, Est. 1946" are owned by Giannini Strategic Enterprises.

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People on official public White House tours, meanwhile, can buy souvenirs from a separate gift shop operated by The White House Historical Association.

The shop’s name has fueled misleading claims before. In 2020, Facebook posts falsely said Trump was selling coronavirus-themed commemorative coins through the White House Gift Shop. And in 2022, similar posts falsely claimed the White House made commemorative coins dedicated to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

In both cases, such coins existed, but through the private gift shop, not the actual White House.

PolitiFact reached out to Cassidy’s campaign team but did not hear back.

Our ruling

Cassidy tweeted that, "The White House Gift Shop is putting out a commemorative coin for Donald Trump's indictment."

His statement is partially accurate in that a business called The White House Gift Shop is promoting the sale of coins commemorating Trump’s indictment. But Cassidy leaves out key details by failing to note that this private vendor is not associated with the actual White House. 

We rate his claim Half True.