SUCCESS! Macy's Fired Donald Trump (Finally)

You did it! Macy's dumped Trump!

Yesterday, Macy's announced they are ending their business relationship with Donald Trump. Notably, in their announcement, Macy's acknowledged what participants in our Dump Trump Effort have been saying all along -- that Trump brand of bigoted bullying is inconsistent with the corporate values that Macy's espouses.[1]

Macy's isn't the only company recognizing that Donald Trump is bad for business though. This morning, Serta announced that it was ending sales of its Trump mattresses and that they would also not be renewing their licensing agreement with Trump.[2] Last week, NBC fired Donald Trump and Univision severed its business ties with him. My sense is that Trump's remaining business partners, like Phillips Van Heusen or the PGA, will follow Serta's lead and proactively reevaluate their business partnerships with Trump.

Your participation made it possible.

I started this effort this effort three years ago. It's been quite a journey. In that time, we gathered over 730,000 signatures on our petition, held rallies at Macy's stores all across the country, cancelled Macy's credit cards, ran billboards urging Macy's to reconsider supporting Trump and many of us have even refrained from shopping at Macy's until they ended their business partnership. Donald Trump mocked our efforts and even tried to sue me for $25 million. And, of course, there were plenty of naysayers that said we'd never convince Macy's to dump Trump.

But, we never gave up.

Apropos, I just want to emphasize two takeaways:

1) Your participation matters. It's easy these days to simmer in impotent frustration and to feel as if taking any action is pointless because it won't have an effect. Whether it's really big change like grappling with social injustices or smaller changes like corporate accountability, it is only possible if people, like you, participate in efforts to achieve that change.
2) Peristence pays off. Change is hard. It took three years to convince Macy's to acknowledge what was so obvious from day one. Bigger changes would need even more concerted work.

So, if there's something that you're passionate about, I strongly encourage you to get active and stay active.

I am passionate about putting bullies in their place and challenging right-wing chicanery. I first got active six years ago when I was in law school and organized an online campaign aimed at getting advertisers to stop sponsoring Glenn Beck. I am currently the Executive Vice President of Media Matters, which is a media watchdog focused on correcting coservative misinformation.

• To keep up with my efforts to put bullies in their place and challenge right-wing chicanery, you can follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/goangelo

• To get involved in my work with Media Matters correcting conservative misinformation, you can sign up here: http://action.mediamatters.org/subscriptions

Lastly, a big thank you to MoveOn.org. They made it possible for a single person to organize hundreds of thousands of other people, so that we could as a group stand up to a billionaire bully (and win!) and convince one of the biggest companies in the world to take action. They have been tremendously supportive and helpful this whole time. I will continue to support them moving forward because I have seen up close how potent they can be by empowering their supporters.

Onward!

Best,
Angelo
@GoAngelo

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[1] CNN, First on CNN: Macy's dumps Donald Trump, 7/1/15. http://cnn.it/1LUNRTx
[2] Reuters, Mattress maker Serta next in line to dump Trump, 7/2/15. http://reut.rs/1C371pK