Being pals with Trump has its costs
It is every American’s right to make his or her own economic decisions.
Revile Remington Arms, maker of assault rifles? Withhold money from those with whom it does business.
Dislike Fox News, CNN or MSNBC? Turn them off; even turn away from advertisers’ products if you’re so inclined.
Revile the president, whose reelection a New York billionaire is supporting with multi-million-dollar fundraisers? We sympathize. Feel free to boycott businesses Steve Ross and his Related Companies owns: Soul Cycle, Equinox, the Miami Dolphins.
For ostracism enthusiasts, singling out an especially powerful enabler of President Donald Trump makes strategic sense. It sends the message that high-profile help for an unstable, dangerous and divisive president might have consequences for the bottom line.
Ross, who released a statement distancing himself from some of Trump’s views while embracing his economic agenda, should have known better: This is a package deal. You buy the tax cuts, you get Trump’s racist rhetoric and xenophobic policy in the bargain.
Searching for enemies every time you open your wallet, however, is an exhausting, potentially expensive way to live in a nation where nearly 63 million people voted for Trump in 2016, where more than 90,000 individuals already sent him political donations for 2020 and where a deeply interconnected populace makes countless economic decisions daily based on price, quality and convenience.
Taken to its logical conclusion, it is bound to deepen the cultural and political divides many of Trump’s opponents rightly decry.
Rep. Joaquin Castro spotlighted the names of 44 of his own constituents who gave the max to Trump this year, including a local Realtor and the owner of a barbecue joint. All perfectly legal. But group shaming of small business owners who donated $2,700 to the president is a path toward endless civic warfare.
Boycotts have a proud American tradition. But those bent on punishing all supporters of a president should be careful about the world they are creating.
— New York Daily News
Trump just can’t do the right thing on guns
Wednesday, before departing for the sites of mass shootings, where he would refreshingly and atypically play a calming role, President Donald Trump said, “I’m looking to do background checks,” while dismissing the vital push to renew a ban on military-style assault rifles.
The president claimed to be interested in passing universal background checks before. Then the NRA intervened, and he lost the will.
As to a ban on assault weapons, Trump’s excuse that there’s “no political appetite” for a measure two-thirds of Americans support is circular: There’s no political appetite precisely because craven Republicans like him refuse to lead.
— New York Daily News
