Trump calls for Goodyear boycott after company bans MAGA attire among employees

President Donald Trump on Wednesday promoted a boycott of Goodyear, angrily reacting to a viral company policy that banned employees from wearing “MAGA Attire.”

“Don’t buy GOODYEAR TIRES - They announced a BAN ON MAGA HATS. Get better tires for far less!” Trump wrote on Twitter. “(This is what the Radical Left Democrats do. Two can play the same game, and we have to start playing it now!).”

The president appeared to reference an image that a Goodyear employee said was taken during a diversity training slideshow that went viral this week.

According to Kansas television station WIBW, a slide labeled “Zero Tolerance” was presented at the company’s Topeka, Kan., plant and spelled out appropriate and inappropriate displays.

“Black Lives Matter” and “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride” were considered acceptable. Listed under the “unacceptable” section were “Blue Lives Matter,” “All Lives Matter,” “MAGA Attire” and “Political Affiliated Slogans or Material.”

WIBW reported that a worker at the Topeka plant captured the picture and provided it to the news station.

In a statement following Trump’s tweet, Goodyear denied that the slide was created or distributed by their corporate office and claimed it was not part of a diversity training class.

The company did not indicate the image was doctored and stood by the ban on political messaging articulated in the slide.

“To be clear on our longstanding corporate policy, Goodyear has zero tolerance for any forms of harassment or discrimination,” the statement read. “To enable a workplace environment free of those, we ask that associates refrain from workplace expressions in support of political campaigning for any candidate or political party, as well as similar forms of advocacy that fall outside the scope of racial justice and equity issues.”

The statement also established the company’s support for law enforcement and pushed back on claims Goodyear is “anti-police.”

Goodyear’s response was not enough to satisfy the White House. Elaborating on his tweet at a news briefing on Wednesday afternoon, Trump accused the company of “playing politics” and claimed that he polled “very well” with its “great workers.”

“When they say that you can’t have Blue Lives Matter, you can’t show a blue line, you can’t wear a MAGA hat, but you can have other things that are Marxist in nature, there’s something wrong with the top of Goodyear,” Trump said.

After a reporter noted that the presidential limousine, known as “The Beast,” rides on Goodyear tires, Trump said he would be willing to “swap them out” for another brand.

“Look, you’re going to have a lot of people not wanting to buy that product anymore,” he said. “And they’ll buy it from a competitor. Made in the U.S.A., too.”

The president also appeared to suggest that Goodyear employees who potentially lose their jobs as a result of his call for a boycott would be able to find work elsewhere because of his administration’s economic policies.

“I would be very much in favor of people [who] don’t want to buy there. And you know what, they’ll be able to get a good job,” Trump said, adding: “You’ll be able to get another good job. I think it’s disgraceful that they did this.”

At a separate news briefing Wednesday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany accused Goodyear of targeting conservatives and said the company needed to “clarify their policy.”

“They came out and said equity issues,” McEnany said. “I will stand at this podium and say Blue Lives Matter is an equity issue, and Goodyear needs to come out and acknowledge that.”

Trump’s call for a boycott was aimed at his supporters, McEnany said. She did not specify if the boycott would affect government vehicles.

Goodyear is headquartered in Ohio, a 2020 swing state, and employs roughly 63,000 people.

The president’s tweet drew the ire of Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who accused Trump of letting down American workers.

“It’s absolutely despicable that the President would call for a boycott of an American company, based in Akron, that employs thousands of U.S. workers,” Brown wrote on Twitter. “He failed to stand up for workers in Lordstown, and now he betrays the workers in Akron.”

Trump’s Goodyear attack is the latest in a long line of proposed boycotts from the president. Since 2015, Trump has called on boycotts of numerous prominent companies, ranging from Apple to CNN.

Liberal boycotts of companies with conservative ties have frequently irked Trump. The Trump campaign played up their support for Goya last month, after the food company drew heat from the left after the CEO praised Trump at a White House event.

In July 2019, Trump used similar rhetoric when defending his friend and Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus.

“More and more the Radical Left is using Commerce to hurt their ‘Enemy.’ They put out the name of a store, brand or company, and ask their so-called followers not to do business there,” Trump wrote on Twitter at the time. “They don’t care who gets hurt, but also don’t understand that two can play that game!”

Quint Forgey contributed to this report.