From Yahoo:
“At least 7
notable companies are planning to cut ties with Trump's businesses”
Following the
deadly pro-Trump riot in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, a host of companies have
announced plans to stop political giving, with some targeting the Republican
members of Congress specifically and others suspending political contributions
altogether. Meanwhile, President Trump himself has remained defiant, falsely
telling reporters Tuesday that his speech last week, which helped incite
violence that led to 5 deaths, had been deemed “totally appropriate.” But a few
companies with direct relationships to Trump’s company, the Trump Organization,
and his campaign have also acted, exposing an additional point of leverage
that, like the permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump Twitter handle,
will continue to impact him personally long after he leaves office. The Trump
Organization had already been facing financial headwinds this year stemming
from the president’s conduct and coronavirus restrictions, but the actions in
the past week have been at a larger scale than anything seen before. Zach
Everson runs the website 1100pennsylvania.com (the address of the president’s
Washington, D.C., hotel) and chronicles his personal business dealings closely.
These businesses had plenty of opportunities to cut ties with Trump over the
last four years, but “it wasn't until this week that the math, I guess, changed
for those groups and they realized it would just be better to cut him loose,”
said Everson.
Hitting
Trump’s pocketbook In perhaps the most significant move, Deutsche Bank (DB)
will cease doing new business with Donald Trump or his companies, according to
a New York Times report. The multinational bank with headquarters in New York
has long been a key Trump ally, helping him finance his business for decades.
Deutsche Bank, which has been called “Trump’s bank,” has been the subject
of subpoenas by New York prosecutors, and has been been itching to distance
itself from Trump. The violence in D.C. last week – and Trump’s involvement in
it – appears to have been the last straw. Journalists outside Deutsche
Bank building in London, Monday, July, 8, 2019.
Germany's struggling Deutsche Bank says it will cut 18,000 jobs by
2022, saying it is going “back to our
roots” with a radical restructuring plan meant to focus the company on
traditional strengths.(AP Photo/Natasha Livingstone) It won’t be quite
so easy though as Trump still owes the Deutsche Bank more than $300 million,
coming due in the next few years. The Times reports that Signature Bank (SBNY)
is also cutting ties with the soon-to-be former president. The
Professional Golf Association, another longtime Trump ally, has cut ties. One
of golf’s four major tournaments had been scheduled for the Trump National Golf
Club in Bedminster, in New Jersey, in 2022. But not anymore. “It has
become clear that conducting the P.G.A. Championship at Trump Bedminster would
be detrimental to the P.G.A. of America brand,” said Jim Richerson, the P.G.A.
of America president in announcing its decision to terminate the contract. A
worldwide governing body for golf, the R&A, also announced it “had no plans
to stage any of our championships at [Trump’s course in] Turnberry [Scotland]
and will not do so in the foreseeable future.” That move takes the British Open
away from Trump for now. His course is among a group of 10 courses where the
prestigious tournament rotates; the event was last held there in 2009, before
Trump bought the course.
‘We have
terminated stores affiliated with President Trump’ Shopify (SHOP), the
Canadian e-commerce company, also took down online stores it managed that sold
Trump merchandise. TrumpStore.com now redirects viewers to the Trump
Organization’s own store with no capability to buy things online. The site
invites visitors to either send an email or “[e]xplore the official retail
experience of The Trump Organization in-store at Trump Tower.” In a
statement to Yahoo Finance, a Shopify spokesperson said that due to the
president’s actions, “we have terminated stores affiliated with President
Trump.” In another striking blow, according to a Washington Post report,
New York City is exploring legal options to terminate its business
relationships with Trump. The president’s company still has contracts “to run a
carousel, two ice rinks and a golf course in city parks.” A spokesperson
for the Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment by time of
publication.
Undercutting
the Trump campaign apparatus A spate of companies that do business with the
Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee have also abruptly cut
ties. Salesforce (CRM), a cloud-based software company headquartered in
San Francisco, provides much of the infrastructure behind Trump and the
Republican National Committee’s ability to send emails to millions of its
followers. Salesforce told Vice.com it had "taken action" in order to
"prevent its use of our services in any way that could lead to
violence." A Twitter account that tracks Trump’s fundraising pitches
reports that it has received zero pitches from the president since Jan. 6, the
day of the DC riots. Stripe, a private company that lets businesses
process payments online, announced it would stop processing payments for the
president’s campaign website, according to the Wall Street Journal. The impact
of that move was unclear, though, as the Trump campaign website continues to
ask visitors to contribute through the group Winred, which gathers contributions
for a range of Republicans. “He’s become toxic and so companies at this
point don’t want to have that toxicity rub off on them,” said Bruce Freed,
president of the Center for Political Accountability. The question is
how the Trump Organization – which Trump still owns, though he says has been
under the day-to-day control of his two adult sons since he took office – fares
in the coming years, and whether businesses will eventually decide to re-engage
his hotels and golf courses. Everson said that no matter what, there will be a
range of smaller politically aligned groups that will continue to patronize
Trump’s properties. “My guess is that a lot of those companies that were
looking to have events at the Trump Hotel, even after Trump was no longer
president, are so wedded to his agenda, they'd probably continue,” he said,
pointing specifically to upcoming events like an import-export gun trade
association meeting.
^ The best
thing to punish Trump (since it is less likely that he will be removed from
office before January 20th) is to hit him in his bank accounts. I am
glad to see Donors and Companies removing their support for him. He is no
longer US President, but a Traitor to the United States and our very Core
Values. I see a long list of criminal and civil cases against him that will tie
him up in the courts for years -all of which requires money and so cutting that
financial support off is crucial. ^
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