Editor’s note: This article was first published in July 2015; it was written at the start of Trump’s first presidential campaign, well before he won the 2016 election, and remarks such as still has to take a position and not doing well lately refer to that moment.
It’s incredible how someone like Donald Trump, who with his drive and his words has managed to inspire so many people, yours truly included, can spew so much crap in a speech that has turned not only the Latino community in the United States (Mexicans in particular) against him, but also his own image and brand. And it is already turning into a financial cost for Trump.
Real estate mogul, Republican and billionaire Donald Trump’s bid for the presidency of the United States is going to cost him dearly. He was badly off the mark with the racist and tasteless comments he made against Mexicans and the Latino community, calling them rapists, criminals and drug dealers, among other things.
And, as you would expect, his business partnerships have started to suffer.
Brands are starting to break off their relationships with Donald Trump. And there are quite a few of them.
The Macy’s department store chain has announced it is ending its business relationship with Trump and cancelling its Trump clothing line because of the unfortunate racist comments, saying that as a company it does not believe they are an accurate portrayal of Mexicans and Hispanics, who have also contributed to the country’s success.
NBC has also cut ties with Trump, issuing a statement saying, in effect, that he is no longer welcome at the network for The Apprentice.
Serta, a mattress company, also announced that it would stop selling its Trump-branded products.
He is also losing out with the Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants, since Univision (the largest Spanish-language network) also announced the end of its business relationship with Trump, saying it will not work, now or at any time in the future, on any project Trump has anything to do with. Ironically, Trump is a major shareholder in this network.
Televisa and Ora TV (founded by Mexican businessman Carlos Slim) have also declared that they are ending any kind of business relationship with the Trump Organization’s companies, having been offended by the real estate mogul’s comments.
It’s not that the end of these partnerships is going to wipe out Trump’s fortune (not for now, at least), but it is probably the start of a string of future breakups.
ACN, a company to which Trump lends his image, has yet to take a position. Like Herbalife, in the United States its affiliated sellers tend to be mostly from the Hispanic community.
Trump has not been on a good path lately.
Mr “Think Big” was an example to many entrepreneurs and a source of inspiration and motivation for business people, but for some time now he has broken many business principles, focusing exclusively on “anything goes to make money”, even selling useless get-rich courses, which also landed him with a lawsuit for allegedly defrauding 5,000 people through his “Trump University”.
Trump should know that image is everything. In fact, ever since he became famous, he has brought out a wide range of products, mostly “low value and high price”, but carrying the Trump image. Many of them failed, because selling steaks for 999 dollars just because they carry Trump’s picture is going too far.
But that’s Trump: someone who inspired me in his day and who today, in my personal opinion, represents everything I would hate to become.
See also: Kiyosaki and Trump: when your idols go from inspiring you to using you
Featured image: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr.
