President Donald Trump has long embraced the act of boycotting major companies that he feels have disrespected him, his administration, American values, or all three.
From CNN to Oreo cookies to Scotch whiskey, the MAGA president has urged his supporters to cancel a long list of products or institutions, usually launching his rallying cry on Twitter. On Wednesday, he added to the ever growing list, discouraging Americans from buying Goodyear tires after the company apparently told Kansas employees in a presentation slide that attire promoting MAGA (or any other political causes) were not allowed, while Black Lives Matter and LGBT causes were.
“Don’t buy GOODYEAR TIRES - They announced a BAN ON MAGA HATS. Get better tires for far less!” Trump tweeted Wednesday. He added in parentheses, “This is what the Radical Left Democrats do. Two can play the same game, and we have to start playing it now!”
And while Goodyear issued a vague statement stating that the slide wasn’t “created or distributed by Goodyear corporate, nor was it part of a diversity training class”—Trump already declared the American company canceled. Never mind the fact the presidential limo, known as The Beast, exclusively uses Goodyear tires.
Along with Goodyear, here are all the things Trump has urged his supporters to boycott, because he said so.
HARLEY-DAVIDSON MOTORCYCLES
In mid-2018, Trump encouraged his supporters to boycott the Wisconsin motorcycle company after it said it would move some of its production overseas to avoid new tariffs imposed by the European Union.
Although the motorcycle brand was one of several companies that vowed to move production overseas after the EU retaliated against Trump’s steep tariffs on steel and aluminum, Trump only hit at Harley-Davidson. The Hill reported that the company suffered a 13 percent sales loss over a two month period—the steepest decrease in eight years—even after CEO Matt Levatich reportedly told staff and dealers that motorcycles sold in the U.S. would be built in the U.S.
APPLE
In February 2016, Trump called for his Twitter followers to “boycott all Apple products” until the company agreed to a government request to unlock the cell phone of the mass shooter involved in the 2015 San Bernardino terrorist attack that killed 14 people.
Apple didn’t fold—but that hasn’t stopped Trump from using an iPhone for years. In 2019, he even complained that his iPhone no longer had a home button.
After investigators tried for months to break into the San Bernardino shooter’s phone, a magistrate ordered Apple to provide software that would allow authorities to unlock it. CEO Tim Cook called the demand “chilling” and said it would “undermine the very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect.”
CNN
CNN is a frequent target of Trump’s ire for its liberal-leaning coverage and frequent criticism of his administration. “Great, and we should boycott Fake News CNN. Dealing with them is a total waste of time!” the president tweeted in November 2017.
He doubled down in 2019, urging supporters to stop “using or subscribing” to the news organization’s parent company AT&T because of what he felt was biased coverage.
But The New York Times reported in April that he can’t stop hate-watching the network.
MEGYN KELLY’S FOX NEWS SHOW
The president is infamous for attacking news organizations and anchors who are critical of him and his administration. But in March 2016, he took it a step further, proposing a boycott of Megyn Kelly’s Fox News show amid a spat between the then-candidate and the news host. The feud began in 2015 when Kelly asked Trump in a presidential debate about his derogatory comments on women, and Trump later told CNN that “blood was coming out of her eyes, blood coming of her whatever.” Trump eventually admitted to Kelly in an interview that he understood why she asked the “unfair” question.
MACY’S
The Trump family has had a complicated relationship with the department store chain. Macy’s once carried Trump’s clothing line but cut ties in 2015 after he called Mexicans “rapists” in his speech announcing his presidential campaign.
“Macy’s is a company that stands for diversity and inclusion,” the store said at the time. “We are disappointed and distressed by recent remarks about immigrants from Mexico... who have made so many valuable contributions to the success of our nation.”
In response, Trump, naturally, called for a boycott. He neglected to mention that his daughter Ivanka’s clothing line was still sold in Macy’s. It was nearly dropped after a viral online petition.
UNIVISION
At the start of Trump’s 2016 campaign, the New York real estate mogul called for a boycott of the Spanish-language network Univision after it announced it would end its relationship with the Trump Organization over comments the then-candidate made about Mexican immigrants.
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” Trump said in June 2015. “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
Univision also said it would no longer air the Miss USA pageant and would sever ties with the Miss Universe Organization, which Trump was a part-owner of. In response, Trump did what he did best. He tweeted.
ROLLING STONE
In July 2013, Donald Trump urged Americans to “boycott & cancel subscriptions” to Rolling Stone magazine after the publication featured Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on its cover. Trump’s outrage matched others’ criticism. The Boston mayor said the story “rewards a terrorist with celebrity treatment”—prompting the magazine to defend their interview and stress their “commitment to stories and thoughtful coverage.”
HBO
In 2013, HBO talk-show host Bill Maher mocked Trump for spreading baseless conspiracy theories about Barack Obama’s birthplace. He offered to donate $5 million to charity if Trump could produce a birth certificate proving he is not the “spawn of his mother having sex with an orangutan.”
A year later, when Trump was still just a real estate tycoon and reality TV star, he again instructed his millions of followers to boycott HBO for continuing to air Maher’s show Real Time With Bill Maher.
MEXICO
Trump’s relationship with Mexico has long been contentious. Years before he announced his candidacy for president, Trump tweeted that his supporters should “Boycott Mexico” amid news that a Marine reservist was imprisoned for crossing the borders with guns. Sgt. Andrew Paul Tahmooressi was arrested in Tijuana, Mexico on March 32, 2014, after customs agents found three firearms in his truck in violation of the country’s federal gun laws.
Tahmooressi was released in November 2014, after spending seven months in a Mexican jail.
ITALY
In 2011, Trump chimed in about the Amanda Knox scandal. Knox, an American who spent almost four years in an Italian prison for the 2007 murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher, was fighting a prolonged legal battle to return to the U.S.
“Everyone should boycott Italy if Amanda Knox is not freed—she is totally innocent,” Trump tweeted on September 30, 2011. A month later, Knox and her former boyfriend, who was also implicated in the gruesome murder, were found not guilty.
Eight years later, President Trump hosted the president of Italy and his family at a White House functioning celebrating the Italian republic.
GLENFIDDICH SCOTCH WHISKEY
Trump has a long, contentious, relationship with Glenfiddich whiskey. After the brand selected Michael Forbes, a farmer who refused to sell his land to Trump for a controversial golf course, as “Top Scot” of 2012, Trump immediately hit back.
Business Insider reported that Trump then banned every brand of whiskey sold by Glenfiddich’s parent company, Williams Grant & Sons, from his resorts and hotels. In a statement, the future president said that the whiskey brand was jealous of his own in-house single malt brand and called for a boycott because there was no way the “Top Scot” results were “made by the Scottish people.”
It’s not clear if any Trump-brand restaurants and bars serve Glenfiddich now.
OREOS
No brand is safe in Trump’s world— even milk’s favorite cookie.
Trump declared in 2017 that he would not be “eating any more Oreos” after Mondelez International, the parent of Nabisco, which produces Oreos, announced it would move some of its Chicago operations to Mexico.
Trump claimed the move would cost 2,000 American jobs; the actual number was closer to 600. Accuracy aside, the president’s supporters obliged, even joining in on an impassioned chant of “no more Oreos” at the president’s behest during a rally in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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