Viewers of Fox News were given the gift of learning about Trumpy Bear on Monday morning in a campy advertisement shilling a stuffed teddy bear resembling President Donald Trump.
A journalist at Vox tweeted about the commercial:
The ad for Trumpy Bear ― yes, it’s the actual name of the product ― features a bear with Trump’s signature comb-over, white cuffs, a collar and a red tie seated on a motorcycle, riding in a golf cart and even snuggled up in a chair.
Perhaps the most bizarre facet of the bear is that it has a secret pocket that reveals an American flag blanket.
Through a Fox News spokesperson, Fox News’ senior vice president of eastern sales, Dom Rossi, explained the commercial is a local ad and the network does “not do business with them nationally.”
Trumpy Bear appears to have been around since at least mid-2017, with similar advertisements to the one that aired on Monday popping up all over YouTube. This latest resurgence, though, has brought people out of the woodwork to ask: Is this real?
Luckily, Snopes did everyone a service by fact-checking the bear’s existence and informing readers: “Trumpy Bear is real. The commercial is real, not a spoof (although some moments appear to have been written with tongue firmly in cheek). And the bear itself is a real product available for purchase.”
The reaction to the bear popping up again has been a treat in and of itself: