US President Donald Trump has unleashed on American actress Debra Messing, labelling her a "racist" and calling for her to be fired from her show Will and Grace.
On Wednesday, Messing - who has long had an on and off feud with Trump - apologised for liking an image on Twitter of a sign calling black Trump voters "mentally ill". A #RacistDebraMessing emerged after the incident.
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Messing has also recently promoted publishing a list of people attending a fundraiser that Trump will attend, which many in Hollywood fear will risk creating a new blacklist, similar to what was put in place in the mid-20th Century naming and shaming Communists. Hollywood studios would then not hire many of the individuals on the list.
Trump tweeted on Friday: "Bad 'actress' Debra The Mess Messing is in hot water. She wants to create a 'Blacklist' of Trump supporters, & is being accused of McCarthyism.
"Is also being accused of being a Racist because of the terrible things she said about blacks and mental illness.
The President then goes on to compare the situation to that of Trump supporter Roseanne Barr whose show was cancelled after she tweeted something many deemed racist.
"If Roseanne Barr said what she did, even being on a much higher rated show, she would have been thrown off television. Will Fake News NBC allow a McCarthy style Racist to continue? ABC fired Roseanne. Watch the double standard!" Trump tweeted.
Messing stars on NBC's Will and Grace which is set to wrap up with its eleventh season.
One of those who rallied against Messing's call for the publication of names of people going to Trump's fundraiser was actress Whoopi Goldberg.
"Last time people did this, people ending up killing themselves...we had something called the Blacklist and a lot of really good people were accused of stuff. Nobody cared whether it was true or not, they were accused," says Goldberg.
"In this country, people can vote for who they want to. That is one of the great rights of this country. You don't have to like it, but we don't go after people because we don't like who they voted for."
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