U.S. President Donald Trump urged not to buy tires from the American Goodyear Tire & Rubber, which, according to media reports, prohibits employees to show the political slogan MAGA (Make America Great Again), with which the current U.S. president won the election.
Don’t buy GOODYEAR TIRES – They announced a BAN ON MAGA HATS. Get better tires for far less! (This is what the Radical Left Democrats do. Two can play the same game, and we have to start playing it now!).
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2020
Later in the briefing Trump said he was “dissatisfied” with Goodyear because the company “is playing politics. He also said he would change tires in a presidential limousine.
Kansas TV’s WIBW-TV had previously published a slide shot of the company’s banned slogans, which was presented to Goodyear employees. Among the inappropriate phrases was the slogan Make America Great Again, while Black Lives Matter was on the list of allowed slogans.
The company said the slogan led to a “misperception” about its policy, The Wall Street Journal wrote. Goodyear noted that it asked employees to refrain from showing support for any movement or political party in the workplace and to limit their human rights work, except on issues of racial justice and equality.
The upcoming U.S. presidential election and rising tensions related to racial issues are creating difficulties to regulate political expression in the workplace, WSJ said. Starbucks told employees during protests that erupted after the death of George Floyd that the company’s policy prohibits the display of political or religious slogans, but then distributed Black Lives Matter T-shirts to employees at coffee shops.
