November 8, 2024

Trump calls on supporters to boycott Goodyear, tweeting ‘Don’t buy Goodyear Tires’ over company’s ban on MAGA hats

Goodyear #Goodyear

President Donald Trump has offered conflicting statements about supplementary funding for the U.S. Postal Service. USA TODAY

President Donald Trump is calling on his supporters to not “buy Goodyear Tires” after reports that the company’s zero tolerance policy doesn’t allow employees to wear MAGA hats and other political affiliated slogans or material. 

“Get better tires for far less! (This is what the Radical Left Democrats do. Two can play the same game, and we have to start playing it now!),” Trump tweeted Wednesday.

There were calls on social media for a boycott of the Akron, Ohio company before Trump’s tweet Wednesday after a slide at a diversity training started circulating on social media this week.

A Topeka, Kansas, television station on Tuesday showed a slide from a diversity training program that was presented at a Goodyear Topeka plant. The station said the slide came from Goodyear’s corporate offices in Akron.

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The slide says that “Black Lives Matter” and “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride” (LGBT) is acceptable.

The slide listed as unacceptable: Blue Lives Matter, All Lives Matter, MAGA Attire, and political affiliated slogans or material.

Goodyear representatives did not immediately respond to USA TODAY’s request for comment Wednesday but tweeted a short statement saying the company “became the focus of a conversation that created some misconceptions about our policies and our company. Goodyear has always wholeheartedly supported both equality and law enforcement and will continue to do so.”

Joe Biden’s campaign commented on Trump’s tweet Wednesday.

Kate Bedingfield, a national campaign spokeswoman, told reporters at about 11:20 a.m. that she hadn’t seen the tweet, but that it reflected Trump’s priorities in office and “putting his own political interests ahead of the good of this country.”

“He spends a tremendous amount of his time in the White House focused on how things reflect on him personally, when he should be thinking about how they affect American families,” Bedingfield said. “I think that’s a fundamental failing of his presidency.”

Contributing: Bart Jansen, USA TODAY; Jim Mackinnon, Beacon Journal

Follow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko

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