Trump launches angry attack on Will and Grace star as Hurricane Dorian tears into US coast

Ms Messing had come under fire for retweeting a photo claiming that African Americans who vote for Mr Trump suffer from mental illness

Donald Trump has launched a renewed attack on Will and Grace actor Debra Messing, calling her racist for retweeting an controversial image, as a powerful hurricane continued tearing into regions along the US east coast.

The president's attacks came just a day after the actor apologised for expressing support for a church sign that claimed "a black vote for Trump is mental illness." The actor had retweeted an image of the sign, which was in Alabama, writing, "Thank you Alabama".

"Bad 'actress' Debra The Mess Messing is in hot water," the president wrote on Twitter on Thursday.

Mr Trump continued, amplifying claims that were originally made by comedian Terrence K Williams, who was seen in a video scolding Ms Messing for supporting the sign in the since-deleted tweet. Mr Williams had encouraged his followers to use the hashtag "#RacistDebraMessing", which became a trending topic on Twitter on Wednesday.

The president also claimed, in apparent reference to comments by Whoopi Goldberg about Ms Messing's tweet, that the actor was attempting to employ the methods of Joseph McCarthy, who made wild claims of treason against his political enemies in the 1940s and 1950s. Those methods, known today as McCarthyism, resulted in blacklists for professionals believed to be communists or communist sympathisers.

Ms Messing has not expressed support for those methods, however.

"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," Mr Trump wrote.

He then continued, referencing the backlash to actor Roseanne Barr in 2018, when her show on ABC was cancelled following her sending a racist tweet: "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!"

The claims on Twitter came as the United States was battered by Hurricane Dorian, which has left hundreds of thousands of people without power in the southeastern United States.

Mr Trump had come under fire for claiming that the storm was expected to hit Alabama, even though no official forecasts had indicated that. Mr Trump then was seen with an doctored illustration of the hurricane path, with what appeared to be a felt-tipped drawing to show the storm hitting Alabama.