Heather Monahan
Assistant Features Editor
It’s no secret Donald Trump likes to speak his mind, no matter how harsh or hurtful his statements are. However, his notorious outbursts may be costing him his spokesperson status with Macy’s.
Donald Trump is a member of Macy’s all-star cast of celebrity spokespeople, along with Martha Stewart, Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift to name a few. The department store not only advertises and sells Trump’s brand, but it features him in commercials and advertisements promoting their services.
In light of some of his most recent statements concerning the presidential election, someone started an online petition to get Macy’s to fire Trump.
The petition is found on signon.com and has 595,983 signatures as of Wednesday night. It lays out a list of all of Trump’s behaviors that could be considered inappropriate.
“Donald Trump engages in especially unpleasant, nasty and despicable behavior,” the petition reads.
One of the main reasons online users are looking to get Trump fired is the sexist behavior he’s displayed consistently in the past.
“Trump has a long history of attacking women he disagrees by calling them ‘unattractive,’ ugly or fat,” the petition reads.
Aside from his sexist behavior, such as saying he would date his daughter if they weren’t related, his most recent outburst claiming Obama’s birth certificate is fake has been seen as racist and inappropriate. In the midst of the election, Trump publicly announced he would donate $5 million to a charity of President Obama’s choice if Obama released his passport application and college transcripts, according to a Nov. 1 Politico article.
While it’s not 100 percent clear what exactly Trump thought that would accomplish, it was a racist statement that showed skepticism at Obama being an American citizen.
Despite the number of signatures on the petition, Macy’s doesn’t seem to be taking action when it comes to Trump. The Huffington Post said on Monday there could be two reasons playing into Macy’s ignoring the petition.
One is that history shows online petitions have little to no effect when it comes to retailers and trying to get them to make a change.
In addition, Trump has been involved with Macy’s for a number of years now, appearing in most of their ads. According to Macy’s chief marketing officer, Trump provides comic relief in their ads.
This proves true in one of Macy’s most recent ads for this holiday season that’s not sitting well with those who are looking to get him fired. The commercial depicts Trump being his skeptic self, trying to see whether or not Santa Claus is real by pulling on his beard.
Trump, never missing an opportunity to put his two cents in, talked to Businessweek on Nov. 7 about the petition.
“The fact is that there’s a large group of people who like Donald Trump and what Donald Trump says,” Trump told Businessweek.
Putting aside how Trump actually referred to himself in third person and sang his own praises, I think he’s being a bit overconfident in saying there’s a large group of people who like Donald Trump and what he has to say.
While I know there are people out there who like Trump, I’d be willing to bet the amount of people who don’t like Trump is much larger.
Personally, I think Trump is one of the most pretentious ego-maniacs to walk the face of the Earth. I believe Macy’s should give Trump a taste of his own medicine and tell him “You’re fired” before he makes another outburst.
