Global corporate giants turn their backs on Trump & his supporters
JPMorgan Chase, Marriott and other major corporations are cutting ties with outgoing US President Donald Trump, and are freezing political donations to his supporters in the wake of last week’s unrest on Capitol Hill.
Shortly after Twitter and Facebook banned Trump from their platforms, depriving the president of his crucial loudspeaker, Stripe, a financial services and software company, said it will stop processing payments for Trump’s campaign website.
READ MORE: Twitter stock crashes after company permanently bans Trump’s account
At the same time, the Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA) has announced plans to cut ties with the president, by moving its 2022 championship away from Trump’s Bedminster golf course in New Jersey.
“Our feeling was, given the tragic events of Wednesday, that we could no longer hold it at Bedminster,” CEO of the PGA Seth Waugh told the Associated Press.
Canadian e-commerce company Shopify joined the move by taking down stores selling Trump merchandise online.
“The actions by President Donald J. Trump violate our Acceptable Use Policy, which prohibits promotion or support of organizations, platforms or people that threaten or condone violence to further a cause,” according to the company’s statement, as cited by Yahoo Finance.
Deutsche Bank, Trump’s most important lender, with about $340 million in loans outstanding to The Trump Organization, said it won’t do business with the US president or his companies, the New York Times reports, citing an unnamed source close to the bank.
On January 6, Trump’s supporters breached the protective barricade around the US Capitol in an attempt to disrupt the vote count at the joint session of Congress convened to officially confirm Democrat Joe Biden the next president. The protesters occupied parts of the building for several hours. The revolt led to the evacuation and lockdown of the building and resulted in five deaths.
Moreover, the Republican Party lawmakers who voted to challenge Biden’s victory have also faced growing blowback from the US corporate titans that pledged to cut off campaign contributions.
US multinational hotelier Marriott International said in a statement that it “will be pausing political giving from our Political Action Committee to those who voted against certification of the election.”
Michigan-based commodity chemical company Dow Incorporated, along with American Express and Amazon are among those who've threatened to cut off funding for Republicans who are soon to leave the White House and both chambers of Congress.
“Given the unacceptable attempt to undermine a legitimate democratic process, the Amazon PAC [political action committee] has suspended contributions to any member of Congress who voted to override the results of the US presidential election,” Amazon spokesperson Jodi Seth said, as cited by CBC.
Hallmark Cards, the company that makes greeting cards, and MasterCard have both said they will suspend donations to those who did not support the certification of Biden’s election victory.
“The recent actions of Senators Josh Hawley and Roger Marshall [of Kansas] do not reflect our company’s values,” Hallmark Cards said, adding that it had “requested Sens. Hawley and Marshall to return all HALLPAC campaign contributions.”
Commerce Bank, a regional lender with branches from Texas to Michigan, confirmed it had "suspended all support for officials who have impeded the peaceful transfer of power.”
JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have reportedly introduced a temporary ban on all political donations to both Democrats and Republicans.
Meanwhile, Bank of America said it had contributed to both parties before, adding that “in the next election cycle the PAC will review its decision-making criteria in light of the actions that contributed to the appalling violent assault on the US Capitol.”
Similar measures were announced by investment management firm Blackrock, investment adviser Vanguard Group and a food-processing company, Smithfield Foods. Facebook, Microsoft, and Alphabet also pledged to freeze their political spending.
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