Tom Hanks just sent the best gift to the White House press corps

'Keep up the good fight'

It's been a pretty rough year so far for members of the White House press corps.

Donald Trump's administration, with its conveyor belt of explosive policy decisions and an unfolding Russia scandal that (if true) threatens to dwarf Watergate, has kept them dashing around like the characters in a Benny Hill sketch.

Many of these journalists have been working tirelessly to pull up the President - whose relationship to the truth is casual at best - on his many erroneous comments, including the exhaustingly repetitive claim that he had the biggest electoral college victory of all time.

Having regular contact with the permanently tetchy White House press secretary Sean Spicer, who accused most of them of lying on his very first day in the job, can't be much fun either. There was particular uproar last month when journalists from CNN, The New York Times, The Guardian and the BBC were even banned from attending a press briefing.

Since Trump's consistent attacks on the press are a deliberate attempt to undermine their credibility, having a tough and scrupulous team of journalists in the White House who can weather these attacks and keep on plugging has never been more important.

On Thursday the actor Tom Hanks decided the members of an embattled press corps were in need of a morale boost, so he sent them the best possible gift* you can offer a journalist in need: a lovely new espresso machine.

The picture of the machine, shared on Twitter by NBC news correspondent Peter Alexander, also included a note:

'To the White House Press Corps', Hanks wrote, 'Keep up the good fight for the Truth, Justice, and the American Way. Especially for the Truth part. Tom Hanks.'

Reason to love Tom Hanks #1457.

*Other than shots of Trump's team exchanging big comedy suitcases of cash labelled with Russian government officials, of course. Or Trump's tax returns. Those would also make an excellent gift.