FAIL: USA Today Fact Check Claims Trump Campaign Using ‘Nazi’ Symbolism, Faceplants Spectacularly

In a “fact check” published on Saturday, USA Today claimed to “confirm” rumors that President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign was selling merchandise emblazoned with a “Nazi symbol,” the “Imperial Eagle.” By Sunday night, however, after being fully embarrassed on social media, the paper walked back their claims.

The “fact check” came in response to claims made by two Twitter accounts, Bend the Curve, a left-leaning anti-Semitism watchdog account, and The Lincoln Project, a Republican anti-Trump political action group. The two organizations both noted that Trump’s campaign was selling shirts featuring a design with a right-facing eagle, with outstretched wings, holding a medallion in its talons.

Both groups claimed the symbol was associated with the Nazi Party.

“The President of the United States is campaigning for reelection with a Nazi symbol. Again,” Bend the Arc tweeted.

In a Facebook post, a Trump critic added that Trump’s campaign was now “selling straight-up nazi propaganda shirts.”

The shirt, though, appears to actually reference the “Great Seal of America,” a symbol adopted in the 1780s to represent the American experiment, according to the State Department, and used liberally by the federal government across hundreds of departments. Most notably, it’s used in the official seal of the Office of the President — the office Donald Trump currently holds and hopes to retain in November.