Aug. 20 (UPI) — President Donald Trump called for a boycott of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. on Monday in response to reports the company banned political garb, including his own campaign merchandise.
“Don’t buy GOODYEAR TIRES — They announced a BAN ON MAGA HATS,” Trump wrote on Twitter, referencing the red hats emblazoned with his 2016 campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.
During a press briefing on Wednesday afternoon Trump also said he would replace the Goodyear tires on his presidential limo if an alternative was presented.
“I would swap them out based on what I heard,” he said. “We’ll see what happens.”
Trump’s comments came in response to a report by WMTV, an NBC affiliate in Wisconsin, describing an image of an alleged Goodyear diversity training presentation describing what is and is not acceptable under the Ohio-based company’s “zero-tolerance policy.”
The slide states that messages in support of Black Lives Matter, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender pride are acceptable, while messages in support of Blue Lives Matter, All Lives Matter, “MAGA attire” and political-affiliated slogans or material are unacceptable.
Goodyear released a statement, saying that the image was not created or distributed by the company and is not part of its diversity training class.
“To be clear on our longstanding corporate policy, Goodyear has zero tolerance for any forms of harassment or discrimination,” the company said. “To enable a work 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.”
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said at a briefing later in the day that Goodyear must still “come out and clarify their policy.”
“What was clearly targeted was a certain ideology,” she said.
