Daily Beast: “President Donald Trump trained his social media fire on Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company Wednesday morning, calling for a boycott of the company’s tires as retribution for what Trump said was their decision to ban his trademark red ‘Make America Great Again’ hats.”
“In Akron, Ohio, where the company is located, the missive was met with a mix of consternation and anger. Rep. Tim Ryan, the Democratic congressman who represents the Akron area, said the tweet was a ‘holy shit’ moment in a presidency that’s already been full of them. Ryan told The Daily Beast his immediate reaction was ‘a little bit shocked at the level of stupidity’ on the part of the president. ‘This is an iconic American company in a swing state… it’s really, really dumb politically. But it shows the problem that he has—that it’s more about him than it is about other people… He’s directly saying,’ said Ryan, ‘he wants to put you out of a job.’ That message could be particularly debilitating in an area where 11.1 percent of the population was unemployed, according to June numbers for Akron from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, and in a region where the departures of factories has already caused untold damage to the community. Lordstown, the infamous GM plant that closed in 2019, is located just 40 minutes east of Goodyear’s headquarters.”