UltraViolet, a national women’s advocacy organization, is calling on Amazon and CEO Jeff Bezos to reject what it calls Donald Trump’s “racism, sexism and xenophobia” by stopping the sale of the presidential candidate’s line of menswear.
A petition from the organization, which boasts a community of more than 700,000 women and men, says the Republican front-runner is “inciting violence at his rallies and spewing vitriol that white supremacists like David Duke love.” Signees are asked to “Tell Amazon: Dump Trump.”
UltraViolet said 36,000 people have signed the petition since it launched late last week.
Trump has attached his name to a wide range of products over the years, from shirts and ties to wine and steaks. Ultraviolet credited Macy’s with bailing on Trump’s “brand of hate” last August after the chain of department stores ended an 11-year relationship with the billionaire.
Many, including Trump, saw it as a response to Trump’s stance on illegal Mexican immigration. Macy’s chairman and CEO Terry Lundgren called it a “business decision” and said that “if Hillary Clinton had a “handbag collection we wouldn’t be carrying that either.”
Macy’s was very disloyal to me bc of my strong stance on illegal immigration. Their stock has crashed! #BoycottMacys pic.twitter.com/WsvZtwZbBf
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2015
A search of “Trump” on Amazon.com returns 38,093 items, including “Make America Great Again” hats, books by Trump such as “Crippled America,” stickers, bobblehead dolls and more. Many of those items are available via Amazon vendors, such as a campaign bumper sticker that UltraViolet points out. It features Trump and Clinton and reads “Trump That Bitch.” There are 22 customer reviews for the bumper sticker, some of which call the product “disgusting” or “hate speech” that “does not belong on Amazon.”
The Donald J. Trump Signature Collection of men’s dress shirts is sold on Amazon’s fashion pages. A non-iron, twill stripe shirt priced at $42.99 has 45 customer reviews, 64 percent of which are five stars.
Trump and Bezos have previously clashed on Twitter after Trump called out the Seattle billionaire’s acquisition of The Washington Post. Trump said Bezos bought the newspaper to gain political influence and said Amazon will have “problems” if he becomes president. Bezos responded at one point by saying a seat will be reserved on his Blue Origin rocket to #sendDonaldtospace.
Finally trashed by @realDonaldTrump. Will still reserve him a seat on the Blue Origin rocket. #sendDonaldtospace https://t.co/9OypFoxZk3
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) December 7, 2015
UltraViolet said in a news release that “Amazon has a history of doing the right thing and removing sexist merchandise.” The group said its members spoke out in 2013 about a shooting target called “zombie ex-girlfriend” that they said promoted violence against women. Amazon pulled the item.
“Donald Trump has promoted violence at campaign events, stoked the fires of sexism and racism in America and espouses a political philosophy that borders on fascism,” said Shaunna Thomas, co-founder of UltraViolet, in the group’s release. “These values have no place on the Amazon marketplace. Last year, Macy’s did the right thing — listening to its customers and concluding that Trump was bad for business. It’s long past time that Amazon listened to the voices of its customers and takes steps to dump Trump.”
GeekWire reached out to Amazon for comment Tuesday morning and has not yet heard back.
