Image 01 Image 03

Mob rule hoists Trump out of the free market

Mob rule hoists Trump out of the free market

Comply, or pay the price

Today, popular department chain Macy’s announced that it is pulling Donald Trump’s line of menswear from its stores. Progressive activists renewed pressure on the company to adopt a more “inclusive” image following comments Trump made about immigrants.

Trump instigated a mass freakout last Sunday during an appearance on State of the Union with Jake Tapper. After repeating his desire to finally finish a southern border fence, Trump stumbled over a politically correct tripwire:

“I like Mexico. I love the Mexican people. I do business with the Mexican people, but you have people coming through the border that are from all over. And they’re bad. They’re really bad,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper.

“You have people coming in, and I’m not just saying Mexicans, I’m talking about people that are from all over that are killers and rapists and they’re coming into this country,” he maintained.

Reaction was swift. Univision dropped the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants (Trump is suing for breach of contract.) NBC Universal also cut ties. A petition posted to MoveOn.org demanding the mogul’s head fielded hundreds of thousands of signatures, prompting Macy’s to end its silence on the issue and cave.

More from Time:

“Macy’s is a company that stands for diversity and inclusion,” the department store said. “We are disappointed and distressed by recent remarks about immigrants from Mexico,” Macy’s added, decrying Trump’s depiction of Mexicans, Mexican Americans and Latinos, “who have made so many valuable contributions to the success of our nation.”

In a statement obtained by PBS, Trump said it was he who had ended the Macy’s relationship, and that in any case, he was uncomfortable with the fact that his line there was made in China.

“Clearly, NBC and Macy’s support illegal immigration,” The Donald said. “Both Macy’s and NBC totally caved at the first sight of potential difficulty with special interest groups.”

It’s also worth mentioning that Macy’s latest marketing strategy involves a push to the Latino community. But, irrelevant, right?

Anyone else exhausted yet?

Of course, the bigger issue here isn’t whether or not we agree with Trump’s phrasing, or motivations, or politics; the issue is whether or not we’re willing to help perpetuate power of mob rule when it comes to private enterprise.

If I were Trump, I wouldn’t have used those words. I don’t like that he used those words; but what I like even less is the idea that we’ve become a society that caves at the hint of opposition. I recently wrote that eventually, radical leftist and progressive candidates won’t even need policy positions to fuel their campaigns because all activists need these days is a cause not to discuss, but to shut down debate over.

The scandal isn’t in the issue; the scandal, for leftists, is that we’re even having a debate over immigration/gay marriage/gun rights/women’s rights/issue of the week. The actions of Macy’s, NBC Universal, and other companies that bow so easily to the whims of the mob have reinforced that mentality.

Donald Trump has taken second place in polls in both New Hampshire and Iowa. He’s riding a new candidate bump, to be sure, but I have another theory that I’m working with on why Trump isn’t scraping the bottom of the barrel: people may not like his policies, or his attitude, but for all his faults, they like that he says the things that Americans are apparently no longer allowed to say.

Could it be that the next great battle we’re facing is over one’s right to be a jerk and not lose your scalp for it? This move won’t affect Trump’s ability to earn a livelihood or feed his family, but next time, it won’t be Trump. It’ll be Joe Businessowner from Peoria, Illinois, who made a comment about gay marriage in front of an unfortunately placed cell phone camera—and he’ll be finished.

Maybe conservative support for Trump is a signal that we have, finally, had enough.

DONATE

Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.

Comments

Macy’s sucks. Their stores are messy, customer service non-existent and merchandised crappy. “Latino community” should consider their marketing strategy an insult.

Not A Member of Any Organized Political | July 1, 2015 at 3:07 pm

Macy’s is staggering towards the open-grave of defunct retailers.

Nice of them to shoot themselves in the face over nothingness.

Michael Haz | July 1, 2015 at 3:11 pm

All this leftist pushback against Donald Trump is making me more interested in voting for him, should he still be in the primaries when my state gets to vote. That’s an unintended consequence, right?

Let’s unstack what has happened since Trump spoke truthfully about illegal immigrants:

NBC/Universal “fired” Trump from The Apprentice. No, actually Trump notified NBC/Universal that he was going to enter the Republican primary, and they agreed to part ways because he could not have a television show while an active candidate. Then NBC/Universal tried to wear some holy cloth by claiming they had fired Trump.

Univision removed Trump from the Miss Universe pageant, which is partly owned by Trump, and partly by Univision. Now, actually for the reasons stated above, they were going to part company. Univision, whose executives are Clinton Foundation donors wanted to cover itself in glory, but it’s just a charade. Trump has sued Univision for $500 million, which is just the opening position in how much Univision will pay Trump to buy his share of the pageant business.

Macy’s will no longer sell Trump-branded clothing. Whoop-de-doo. That is a very small part of the Trump businesses, and probably a small part of Macy’s as well. Who’d buy that stuff, outside of a few people in Manhattan? No one, that’s who. But Macy’s now gets to cover itself in holy ashes for doing a mostly meaningless act; but one that will make a few Macy’s employees and window dressers simply damp with pride.

All in all, very little damage has been done to Trump, plus, he has vaulted to the top tier in polling, which if it continues, will qualify him to be onstage for the primary debates. His “enemies” are helping his ascendancy.

    Not A Member of Any Organized Political in reply to Michael Haz. | July 1, 2015 at 3:36 pm

    You’re sayin’ “Trump played them!”
    (like a chessey, clapped-out, thin tin pinball machine!)

    Bet he makes the Democrat idolaters of Univision pay billions through the nose to buy him out!

    Trumped again!

    Estragon in reply to Michael Haz. | July 2, 2015 at 1:07 am

    It’s a trap!

    The knee-jerk reaction to defend the guy for speaking his mind (and pretty much the truth, if awkwardly phrased) gives him a lift in polls. It is likely temporary, but if it allows him to qualify for the debate stage, it is very damaging to the GOP.

    – –

    The man is no conservative. He has operated as a consummate crony capitalist for decades. Trump has attempted several times to get local governments to use eminent domain to obtain private property for his development projects.

    He’s such a great business genius, he managed to bankrupt a casino with strictly limited competition.

    – –

    Worst of all, his presence on stage is a distraction. His bomb-throwing will grab the attention from the serious candidates and make our process appear to be a clown show.

    And make Hillary look like the adult candidate by comparison.

He didn’t exactly “instigate” the freakout, if words still mean things.

LukeHandCool | July 1, 2015 at 3:21 pm

I work for a large police department and my job involves, among many other assignments, auditing police reports and running warrant checks and verifying outstanding warrants are still outstanding.

I can tell you that what Trump says is true.

It’s an ugly truth, but that doesn’t make it any less true.

I also love the Mexican people. I used to teach ESL Adult school to immigrants from Mexico and Central America. I was extremely fond of my students.

The good, law-abiding ones (the great majority) are by and large wonderful, salt of the earth, hardworking people.

Unfortunately a disproportionately large percentage of our criminals are from south of the border and flee there when a warrant(s) is issued. We occasionally catch them coming back over the border (many of them have dozens of aliases and phony DOBs) and, unless they have a violent felony warrant outstanding, they are not extradited even from a neighboring state in the Southwest. Budget constraints.

    Normalizing illegal immigration serves to grant amnesty to conditions and actors in second and third-world nations that motivate mass emigration. Univision, by defending illegal immigration, and violation of American civil rights, not only supports the rape of over 80% of women and girls during their travel, but also supports the immigration of rapists into America. They have established a minority-oriented market that is threatened by addressing the causes and outcomes of mass emigration. Excessive and illegal immigration also serves to cover for the consequences of Democrat’s selective-child policy or sacrificial rites.

      Not A Member of Any Organized Political in reply to n.n. | July 1, 2015 at 3:45 pm

      You forgot to mention it also helps hide their part in the new “sex slave” trade, as well as their old “slave” trading!

      Slave Wages is what Democrats and their sponsors want!

      snark

    Not A Member of Any Organized Political in reply to LukeHandCool. | July 1, 2015 at 3:48 pm

    Here! Here! I agree.

    But today’s Democrat Party is all about 100% lies, 100% of the time – their entire party platform is 100% lies.

    They hate the truth, and they hate the light.

    snark

    Observer in reply to LukeHandCool. | July 1, 2015 at 4:48 pm

    I live in Arizona and have worked in the past with the state prison system. It is filled with a hugely disproportionate number of illegal alien criminals, many of whom are violent, and most of whom are Mexican.

    Then there is the fact that the Obama administration has been releasing tens of thousands of violent criminal illegal aliens — including rapists, child molesters, and murderers — back into U.S. communities, because their home countries refuse to take them back.

    Trump spoke the truth. That’s why the left is so upset with him. They dare not allow anyone who speaks the truth to escape their wrath.

    JohnC in reply to LukeHandCool. | July 1, 2015 at 10:18 pm

    The thing about illegals from Mexico is some of them are good people who are just really poor. Unfortunately, a very large percentage of illegals are nasty criminals and losers of whom Mexico is happy to be unburdened.

      Milhouse in reply to JohnC. | July 2, 2015 at 10:49 am

      Most of them are good people who are coming for the same reason our families came. If all of them were like that then there would be no reason to stop them. Unfortunately Trump was correct that among that throng of good people are many bad ones who are coming to harm us, and we have to stop them. If we could read people’s minds we would just let the good ones in and keep the bad ones out; we can’t do that, so we have to rely on cruder methods. But once someone is in the country and has established a record of working hard and not harming anyone, they have shown that they are the sort of immigrant who should have been welcomed in the first place, and should be left alone.

        SDN in reply to Milhouse. | July 2, 2015 at 12:42 pm

        As usual, Milhouse, you’re either ignorant of certain facts or dishonestly omitting them.

        When our parents / grandparents / etc came here, we had:

        1. An open frontier to expand into. This meant there was an ever increasing pool of unutilized resources for people to work with.

        2. A mass-labor economy, both in agriculture or manufacturing, that could provide gainful employment to large numbers of people.

        3. No welfare system of transfer payments to fall back on if some artificial definition of poor was met. You lived on what you could earn.

        4. No choking regulatory state to make hiring people who have to fall under it, citizens and legal immigrants, too expensive.

        Until those conditions, all of them, are true again, we need to restrict immigration to what can actually be supported.

        2nd Ammendment Mother in reply to Milhouse. | July 2, 2015 at 1:39 pm

        Caveat: I’ve lived on the border for 25 years, and by on the border, I mean that the southern boundary of our property IS the International Border (and has been since 1887 – even thru numerous years of the river changing its paths).

        I moved south as a very young bride with two babies living 10 miles from the next neighbor and 30 miles to the nearest town. The people you are describing are the people that I first encountered and had been the norm for many years. I rarely worried if I crossed paths with a sporadic small group crossing our property, that they just wanted to move on and not cause trouble. If one knocked on our door, something was seriously wrong and they desperately needed aid that anyone would be willing to render.

        Over the years, those occasional small groups can sometimes number in the hundreds per day. They cause significant damage to the planted fields and orchards they pass through, frequently squat in garages and barns. Just among the highlights are the barns that have been burned because of campfires and discarded cigarettes. Several stolen vehicles not to mention the children’s bicycles. 4 murder victims. Acres of destroyed crops from foot and motorized traffic. Gates and fences torn down to facilitate crossing from field to field and livestock lost/killed because of the damaged fences. Livestock killed for food and dogs shot for barking too much. Homes broken into for shelter or theft. Productive work hours lost to doing paperwork with Border Patrol regarding abandoned drug bundles found on the property. Skyrocketing liability insurance costs for trespassers that might potentially be injured.

        That doesn’t include the men with guns who show up on your door step threatening you for reporting their activities and reminding you that they know who your family members are and where to find them. Your employees who’ve had family members kidnapped/murdered to coerce them into using your property for illegal activity. Never knowing if you will suddenly find yourself the target of DHS, despite providing assistance and access to them for many years.

        I can’t even tell you how much worse it’s gotten since the Obama administration has softened border security. What were remarkable incidents are now commonplace. Obama joked that we’d only be happy with a moat full of alligators – Not a few of us thought that would be a positive improvement on the current situation.

        The vast majority of the people who are crossing today are not the “poor peasants looking for a better life” but more likely the criminal element or those looking to take advantage of the current amnesty atmosphere. On our last trip to the border to visit family, our truck was stopped by half a dozen men on our private road still in sight of the river. They insisted that we call the Border Patrol to come get them so they could get their free papers (their words, not mine). And these were not nice men, they were clearly willing to be violent if we didn’t follow through with their demands.

        We later learned, the Agents who came along to pick the men up were told to write the incident up as a “courtesy call” from a passerby and that all of the men had been later released on their own recognizance with a court date. So consider how that skews the statistics we already have that tell us who is crossing the border.

        So…. yeah…. we left my husband’s family farm a year ago and moved north to take over the operation of my family’s operation. And I can’t even describe how much lighter the sense of well being and personal safety has been in that year.

Ironically, Macy’s celebrated the selective exclusion law established with the “equal” ruling. The progressive liberals are scrambling to rationalize denying equal rights to other unions.

This story isn’t interesting because of Macy’s, or because of the overall reaction to Trump’s suicide attempt, it is interesting because this is why people don’t, and we shouldn’t, take Donald Trump seriously as a potential presidential candidate. He is a loud-mouthed, arrogant, obnoxious fool. We can live with the first three, but the last one is a killer. If we were to be unlucky enough to nominate Trump, he’d be provided with unlimited opportunities to shoot himself in the foot, and he’d fall for half of them. Trump never met one of his own opinions that he wasn’t proud of.

    Not A Member of Any Organized Political in reply to Immolate. | July 1, 2015 at 3:28 pm

    Ivanna re-match!

    CloseTheFed in reply to Immolate. | July 1, 2015 at 8:06 pm

    You aren’t an astute observer.

    bw222 in reply to Immolate. | July 2, 2015 at 1:08 am

    Hispanics represent 17% of the US population and 34% of inmates in federal prisons. 53% of Hispanic babies in the US are born to single moms and, according to the Guttmacher Institute, the Hispanic abortion rate is approximately double that of white women. Hardly the people with strong family values Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz like talk about and hardly the people that will make the US a stronger nation.

    9thDistrictNeighbor in reply to Immolate. | July 2, 2015 at 3:17 pm

    “…loud-mouthed, arrogant, obnoxious…”

    Call him a fool based on the merits, or lack thereof, of his positions, but understand that a large number of potential voters are tired of cool arrogance or milquetoast Georgetown-cocktail-party moderation.

    Trump is a New Yorker. Get over it.

he spoke the truth.
funny how so many (including here) don’t like that. they like to be spoon fed fairy dust or something.

better questions would be does he actually believe it or is he just saying it to get support?
I don’t trust him at all.

    n.n in reply to dmacleo. | July 1, 2015 at 4:07 pm

    It wasn’t tactful, but it was the truth on two counts. One, a majority of the women and girls who participate in these mass emigration schemes are raped during their travel. Two, more than one of these male or trans rapists enter America and commit crimes, including rape, inside our country. Univision needs to stop thinking about profiting from their minority-oriented market and acknowledge the human and civil rights violations committed by their preferred demographic.

    The problem may be related to America, but it originates in the immigrant’s homelands. A simple transfer of people only serves to violate Americans’ civil rights and increases our risk, while providing cover for the causes and ensures the progress of problems for the people left behind.

It’ll be Joe Businessowner from Peoria, Illinois, who made a comment about gay marriage in front of an unfortunately placed cell phone camera—and he’ll be finished.

Well, I don’t know, the Progressive mob didn’t manage to hurt Chick-fil-A much. I’d never even heard of Chick-fil-A until the chain was lambasted in the news. The attacks accomplished something all the regular advertising had failed to do.

Ditto for sales of AR and AK variants. The only people I know personally who own any of these bought them specifically because they thought they’d soon become hard to get. It wouldn’t work too well as an ad campaign—”Get one before you can’t!” But as a reaction to wannabee prohibitionists, it’s hard to beat.

I suspect that right now sales of Confederate battle flags are breaking records, just so long as you don’t try to buy them through Amazon.

    SDN in reply to tom swift. | July 1, 2015 at 10:44 pm

    Ask that Indiana pizza parlor. Chick-Fil-A is not Joe Businessman from Peoria.

    2nd Ammendment Mother in reply to tom swift. | July 3, 2015 at 11:59 am

    That guy named “Joe the Plumber” learned about speaking plainly the hard way…. Everyone of us are one “oppo researcher” away from being made an example of.

    What did we learn from the Brett Kimerlin debacle? These folks are soulless and will not stop in their attempts to silence debate and discussion.

    Trump is highlighting something extremely important. We are being forbidden from engaging in plain, truth speaking because of the “outrage warriors”. And if anyone of us dares to speak plainly, we will be destroyed. Trump (and his army of lawyers) are well positioned financially to fight this battle which has nothing to do with a presidential race, but with our very right to speak and think not just opinions but bald facts.

There are some additional ironies that are worth noting. It was the progressive liberals, specifically the gender equivalence faction, that defamed American men as supporting a “rape culture”. Also, while not tactful, Trump gave a voice to the women and girls raped during mass emigration from second and third-world nations. It has been the gender equivocators that attempted to displace responsibility for the policies that they support in both America and abroad that obfuscate the causes of mass emigration, while attacking American men, women, and children for the consequences of their pro-choice doctrine that is not a viable moral or legal philosophy. Univision and NBC should reconsider their aggressive opposition to “truth to power”, that they supported, before they opposed it.

    CloseTheFed in reply to n.n. | July 1, 2015 at 8:09 pm

    Really, none of these people believe anything they say. They are just trying to rend America apart.

What do you expect from Macy’s when their logo is a big, red communist star?

theduchessofkitty | July 1, 2015 at 4:17 pm

Trump is a blowhard, has always bee, will always be. He has survived worse than what the PC crowd is dishing out at him. He will survive.

He has proven to all he ain’t afraid of nobody! You gotta give him credit: he fights.

Tired of conservatism is more like it, if you’re considering support for Trump.

He’s a career crony capitalist who has tried to get governments to condemn private property for his developments. He is no conservative.

Trump would be an ideal candidate for the new nutbar party people keep threatening to leave the GOP to start, though, since that won’t be a conservative group either. Just loud, obnoxious nuts. Perfect fit.

    SDN in reply to Estragon. | July 1, 2015 at 10:45 pm

    F*ck you and the RINO you rode in on. Principles are Kryptonite to your kind.

      Estragon in reply to SDN. | July 2, 2015 at 1:12 am

      Thanks for demonstrating the level of discourse you are comfortable with. I was working for Republican candidates since 1968, we’ve been the party of tradition and conservative solutions, not the childish insults hurled by lowlife trash.

        bw222 in reply to Estragon. | July 2, 2015 at 1:21 am

        Who in the GOP has had a conservative solution to anything in the past 20 years? Bush43? Trent Lott? Bill Frist? John McCain? John Boehner? Mitch McConnell? Boehner is purging Republican House members who refuse to support Obama.

        You may be a Republican, but I doubt you are a conservative.

        Estragon, are you one of those individuals who loves to stand up and say “I haven’t moved left, the Republican Party has moved right?”

        One of the professors at MSU Law used to say that over and over again when those of us in the Conservative Law Society and the Federalist Society would call him out for supporting a blatantly neo-liberal, progressive position, especially in regard to progressive income taxation and privatization of federal departments and “entitlements” (aka government freebies). He would constantly whine {engage whiny voice} “I haven’t left the Republican Party, the Party has left me.” {End whiny voice}.

        Yes, Trump is a crony capitalist. I don’t care. He understands business in a way that no previous president has EVER likely understood it. Further, he’s obnoxious enough and self-righteous enough to refuse to bow to the left’s sacred cows of “Political Correctness” and lies about Illegal Immigration merely being about “Immigration.”

        If Trump is called out on a position, and he’s likely the one candidate who wouldn’t hesitate to give the questioning party the finger and say “I’m right, you’re wrong, end of discussion.” If for no other reason, I would rather have that then the current group of spineless, jelly-blobs that melt at the first sign of discord with their masters the Liberal Demcorats.

          Chem_Geek in reply to Chuck Skinner. | July 2, 2015 at 10:15 am

          The lying, theiving, BSD 1%er MBA CEO Manager Donald Trump, like Romney, was born on third base and thought he hit a triple.

        SDN in reply to Estragon. | July 2, 2015 at 7:27 am

        O Kettle, thou art black — Pot.

    bw222 in reply to Estragon. | July 2, 2015 at 1:14 am

    You could be Trump’x running mate.

DINORightMarie | July 1, 2015 at 5:29 pm

I love that Trump isn’t PC. I love that he speaks his mind, and usually is correct – and doesn’t care if he offends the padded-room-worthy leftists.

But this is, to me, the better way to handle an interview, if you wish to be elected:

Ted Cruz Schools Jorge Ramos on Illegal Immigration and the Rule of Law.

Trump spoke truthfully – enough said.

Midwest Rhino | July 1, 2015 at 6:14 pm

Maybe Trump is useful for us with his tirades, maybe not. He has appeal when he points out these abuses of our government, even if he uses them for his own marketing.

Of more concern to me is how Amazon, Ebay, Wal-Mart all decide in harmony to remove the confederate flag from their shelves. That’s an incredible show of power by the PC Religion. Murderous commie Che still has all sorts of paraphernalia online, but he’s a proud symbol of La Raza leftists.

Eastwood Ravine | July 1, 2015 at 7:02 pm

Trump is going to sue for breach of contract. I’m quite certain Trump doesn’t do high profile business like he does without enforceable contracts. Caving to activists is one thing, breaking a contract is another.

“Macy’s is a company that stands for diversity and inclusion,”

So they’re willing to include selling the Confederate battle flag in this grand inclusion of theirs?

Best thing that could have happened to him. He’s becoming a hero to millions of voters. Trump has his finger on the pulse of the nation, unlike Boehner, McConnell and Prebus, who all have their thumbs up their asses.

Trump may be a knob, but he plays to win and isn’t afraid to claim his winnings. This is a skill set the rest of the Republicans could stand to learn. Although in business some win bigger than others, good business (and Trump is good business) is best done when all participants leave the table feeling that they have “won” to an acceptable degree. Whether or not Trump can translate his business skills into politics remains to be seen, but what’s amusing to me is that he’s somebody who can afford to give it a try.

I find his bombastic showmanship more than a little grating, but if he continues to attack with the truth and the truth generates a following, then he’s a contender. Maybe some of the other Republican candidates can find a newfound appreciation for speaking the truth themselves instead of only whispering it in dark rooms. I can forgive a lot of the showmanship if it comes wrapped around an actual spine.