Fact check: Camping World CEO is misquoted in viral meme

Antonio Fins, Palm Beach Post
·5 min read

The claim: Camping World CEO told Trump supporters they are not welcome at the company's stores

A meme first posted to Facebook in January shows a photo of Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis and the company logo. Written on the photograph is a statement attributed to him: "To President Donald Trump Supporters — Frankly, don't shop at my business."

To date, the post has been shared over 156,000 times. USA TODAY has reached out to the Facebook user for comment.

It started with an interview

The genesis of the meme is an August 2017 interview of Lemonis on the cable business news network CNBC.

Lemonis was asked about the economic boom the country's businesses were experiencing, and he replied it was not correct to give President Donald Trump and his economic team total credit for the good fortunes.

"This notion that the economy is being driven solely by Trump is somewhat laughable," Lemonis said. "There's good fundamentals happening with these companies."

The interview took place in the aftermath of a white supremacist and neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Amid images of torch-bearing demonstrators chanting anti-Jewish slogans as they marched, a confrontation between those at the "United the Right" rally and counter-protesters resulted in a fatality. In addition, two law enforcement agents died when the helicopter they were using to help keep the peace crashed.

After Trump refused to condemn the racist and anti-Semitic marchers, saying there had been "fine people" on both sides, a number of CEOs on the president's White House advisory business councils resigned.

Lemonis was not a member of those councils. But he was asked about the situation in the CNBC interview.

"Now I, of course, along with the other CEOs, are horrified by what we're hearing and seeing from this administration," he said. "But as the CEO of Camping World, it's important to recognize, or the CEO of any company, that we speak for ourselves as individuals on public policy. We speak for our companies as it relates to policy that affects our business. Obviously this one does. But we just need to be very careful. I'm just concerned about certain CEOs dancing on the fence fearing retaliation or fearing something. It's scary right now."

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Then he added: "There’s no doubt that there is probably not many consumers in this country today that are in favor of what has been said in the last couple days and if they are, quite frankly, don’t shop at my business. And I think that the reality of it is that there is a fear, a fear of association."

Marcus Lemonis is the CEO of Camping World. A quote from his is being used out of context on some social media posts.
Marcus Lemonis is the CEO of Camping World. A quote from his is being used out of context on some social media posts.

Lemonis then said he supported the president and his administration on key economic and financial initiatives.

"There's no doubt that Trump's ideas around reform and taxes, I think everybody is in favor of, deregulating and things of that nature," he said. "But when you start to get into attacking people personally, or questioning the humanity, or questioning what this country stands for, I think that discussion has to change."

Lemonis apologizes

Days later, Lemonis issued an apology, saying: “The mistake I made in the last week was not being clear. As the CEO of a business, I am responsible to take care of the people that work there.”

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The company also posted on its blog to clarify Lemonis' comments, and perhaps address similar memes. An undated post states: "Marcus is very aware that many of our shoppers support President Trump, and he was aware of that last August when he asked that Camping World not be supported by those who believe skin color or political beliefs make any one person inferior to another. This belief is clearly not something that supporters of the President, nor most Americans, hold, which is why Marcus’s comments were never to discourage members of any one political party from shopping with us."

It added: "There are images with false quotes, but Marcus never stated that those who support the President aren’t welcome at Camping World."

Our ruling: Partly false

We rate this claim as PARTLY FALSE, as it presents a mix of true and false information. The meme wrongly claims Lemonis was speaking directly and specifically about Trump supporters in his comments. Listening to the entire audio clip, it is very clear that Lemonis was referring to anyone who was in support of the neo-Nazis, white nationalists and white supremacists who marched in Virginia that weekend.

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This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Fact check: Camping World CEO is misquoted in viral meme