Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Several groups that don’t want Walmart to support Donald Trump will be demonstrating in downtown D.C. tomorrow. Unlike other major corporations, the big box store has yet to announce if they are supporting the Republican National Convention, which kicks off next week.
“As the nation’s largest retailer, Walmart has a responsibility to distance itself from Trump’s long history of racist, misogynistic, anti-veteran, and Islamophobic statements,” says Jess Levin of Making A Change At Walmart, a multi-platform campaign organized by the United Food & Commercial Workers. If Walmart owners do support the Republican frontrunner, they should admit it “and let the American people decide where they want to shop,” Levin continues, in a release from the campaign.
Walmart gave $15,000 to the 2016 National Convention’s planning committee in November, according to the campaign. Now, Making Change at Walmart, along with the Employment Justice Center, Washington Teachers Union, and The Solidarity Center are asking the big box retailer not to give any more money to the political party.
The campaign urges Walmart to take a cue from other big corporations that have publicly announced that they would drop or scale back their sponsorships of the convention (many have also said they wouldn’t support the Democratic convention either). As of Thursday, “it will have been 42 days since Trump clinched the Republican nomination, and there have been 42 days of silence from Walmart.” The campaign has also launched an online petition for the cause, which has garnered more than 14,000 signatures.
At noon on Thursday, people representing the four advocacy groups will gather at the future site of the Trump International Hotel, formerly the Old Post Office Pavilion. “This campaign is asking if Walmart’s values are the same as Donald Trump’s values. We can’t think of a place in D.C. more symbolic of Trump’s values than the site of his hotel,” Meredith L. Ritchie of Making Change At Walmart told DCist. Groups are demonstrating at Trump properties in New York and Chicago tomorrow as well.
