Messages online claim that TV host Regis Philbin left a $20 million sum in his will to help support Donald Trump win re-election.
Despite the message, Philbin made no such donation. The fake story comes courtesy of spoof news website America’s Last Line of Defense, the flagship site to a network of spoof news stories operated to target US conservatives.
The story was posted in July 2020 under the headline “Regis Left $20 Million to Trump Campaign”. It was filed under Silly Tater Satire and the About page on the site reads –
Americaslastlineofdefense.com is a subsidiary of the “America’s Last Line of Defense” network of parody, satire, and tomfoolery…
There is no record of Philbin making such a donation, and despite the assertion in the spoof story, FEC rules would prevent an individual donating that much money directly to a presidential campaign.
This isn’t the first time the America’s Last Line of Defense network of spoof news sites have sparked rumours such as this. It has previously claimed that Bob Barker and Lee Majors had made similar donations upon their deaths (despite neither actually having died at the time of writing.)
We rank this claim false.