The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Trump urges tyre firm boycott over ‘ban’ on campaign caps
US President Donald Trump has urged people to boycott Goodyear tyres, tweeting that the Ohio-based company had “announced a BAN ON MAGA HATS”.
But the firm merely asked employees to refrain from workplace expressions involving political campaigns and “forms of advocacy that fall outside the scope of racial justice and equity issues”.
Make America Great Again, or MAGA, is a slogan of the Trump campaign.
Mr Trump’s tweet immediately sent the company’s stock downward, closing down about 2.4% for the day.
“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!),” Mr Trump tweeted.
His tweet followed a report from WIBW television station in Topeka, Kansas, based on an anonymous Goodyear employee’s screenshot.
The screenshot listed Black Lives Matter and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender pride messages as acceptable, while politically affiliated slogans and material, including “MAGA Attire” and “Blue Lives Matter”, in support of police, were listed as unacceptable.
The screenshot was described in the report as part of the company’s diversity training.
Goodyear tweeted that “it has always wholeheartedly supported both equality and law enforcement and will continue to do so”.
The company said the material captured in the screenshot was not created or distributed by the company’s corporate offices or part of a diversity training class.