Sherrod Brown blasts Trump’s ‘despicable’ call for Goodyear boycott

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) denounced President Trump’s “absolutely despicable” call Wednesday to boycott Goodyear tires, a decision he said “betrays” American workers.

“It’s absolutely despicable that the President would call for a boycott of an American company, based in Akron, that employs thousands of U.S. workers,” Brown tweeted Wednesday.

Trump on Wednesday called for a national boycott of Goodyear after an NBC News affiliate reported that employees at a Topeka, Kan., plant were instructed not to wear attire with any political slogans, including “Make America Great Again.” The employees were reportedly told that attire with Black Lives Matter or LGBTQ slogans were acceptable.

Goodyear disavowed the image from a diversity training session reported by NBC in a Wednesday statement, explaining that the company asks employees to “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.”

Trump’s call to boycott Goodyear prompted immediate backlash from Brown and other Ohio Democrats who frequently feud with the president on industrial policy issues. The president had been fiercely criticized by Ohio Democrats for his handling of General Motors’ decision to close its Lordstown assembly plant in 2019, as well as a subsequent strike.

“Keep in mind, this is a President who spent years making his own Trump-branded products overseas,” Brown tweeted. “He failed to stand up for workers in Lordstown, and now he betrays the workers in Akron.”

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), whose district covers Akron and Lordstown, said Trump’s call for a boycott of an “iconic American company in a swing state” was cruel and “really, really dumb politically.”

“It shows the problem that he has — that it’s more about him than it is about other people,” Ryan told The Daily Beast, noting that the company employs roughly 3,000 Ohioans.

Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan (D) also praised Goodyear for “[believing] in this community for generations, investing in the power, tenacity and honest people of the heartland, which is more than we can say for this president.”

Goodyear was founded in Akron in 1898 and is one of the few major companies that make tires in the U.S., making it a curious target for a president who has pledged to revive American manufacturing across the midwest.