Donald Trump quits — SAG!
He still can’t tweet, but the former president was quick to dash off a sharp resignation letter to a union representing actors, broadcasters and performing artists, after the group threatened to remove him.
Trump on Thursday penned the snippy note to say he was quitting SAG-AFTRA after the union took steps to potentially revoke his membership for having incited the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
“Who cares!” Trump wrote to SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Cateris, who publicly released the missive soon after getting it.
“While I’m not familiar with your work, I’m very proud of my work on movies such as Home Alone 2, Zoolander and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps; and television shows including The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Saturday Night Live, and of course, one of the most successful shows in television history, The Apprentice – to name just a few!” Trump wrote.
Trump, who until Jan. 20 was the president of the United States, then bragged that “I’ve also greatly helped the cable news television business (said to be a dying platform with not much time left until I got involved in politics), and created thousands of jobs at networks such as MSDNC and Fake News CNN, among many others.”
Trump’s letter intentionally misspelled the left-leaning MSNBC to link it to the Democratic National Committee.
Cateris, a former star of “Beverly Hills 90210,” last month initiated charges against Trump with the union’s national board, which found probable cause that he had violated the organization’s constitution.
Carteris accused Trump of sparking the Capitol riot, and of sustaining a misinformation campaign that both discredited and threatened the safety of journalists, “many of whom are SAG-AFTRA members,” the group noted in a statement.
Trump faced possible penalties ranging from reprimand to expulsion if found guilty by the union’s Disciplinary Committee.
That is a small punishment compared to the potential lifetime ban Trump faces from federal office — including the presidency — at his upcoming second impeachment trial in the Senate.
As with the union, Trump is accused in the Senate case of inciting the riot, in which thousands of his supporters invaded the halls of Congress in a violent, but failed, effort to overturn President Joe Biden’s election. Five people died from the riot, including a Capitol Police officer beaten to death by the mob.
In his huffy letter to Cateris, Trump called the union’s action against him “your blatant attempt at free media attention to distract from your dismal record as a union.”
“Your organization has done little for its members, and nothing for me – besides collecting dues and promoting dangerous un-American policies and ideas –as evident by your massive unemployment rates and lawsuits from celebrated actors, who even recorded a video asking, ‘Why isn’t the union fighting for me?’ ” Trump wrote.
“These, however, are policy failures. Your disciplinary failures are even more egregious,” he added.
“I no longer wish to be associated with your union. As such, this letter is to inform you of my immediate resignation from SAG-AFTRA. You have done nothing for me.”
After getting his letter, SAG-AFTRA had a two-word reply to Trump.
“Thank you,” the group wrote.
Trump’s letter is one of his lengthiest statements in weeks.
Twitter, which Trump had obsessively used to communicated with supporters, set U.S. policy and fire insults at people and companies that drew his ire, permanently banned him last month “due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” the company has said.
Trump had been a member of the actors’ union since 1989, and had appeared as himself in a number of movies. His resignation does not prevent him from appearing in future film or TV projects.
Several people in show business have said that Trump would demand cameos in movies that featured his properties.
The director Adam McKay in 2018 said that that he filmed a Trump cameo for his 2010 comedy “The Other Guys” because it featured Trump Tower.
McKay said he cut the Trump scene because it was “too cheeseball.”
The actors Matt Damon and Chris O’Donnell have previously shared anecdotes about a similar quid pro quo by Trump.
Last month, Macaulay Culkin, the star of “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” tweeted “Bravo” when a fan of the movie posted an edited version of Culkin’s scene at the Plaza Hotel in which his character Kevin asks Trump for directions to the lobby.
The version posted on Twitter had edited out Trump’s image.
Source: Business - cnbc.com
