President Trump voiced his support for Home Depot HD, -0.61% and one of its co-founders on Tuesday night — and had a few choice words for shoppers who have been threatening to boycott the home improvement chain.
“Fight for Bernie Marcus and Home Depot!” Trump tweeted, referring to calls by some of his critics to stop shopping at the stores after a recent interview revealed that Marcus, 90, who left the company more than 15 years ago, has spent millions to help get Trump elected in 2016 — and plans to donate more to keep him in the White House. Marcus has also donated billions to charity, however, and the proposed boycott has launched a debate on social media.
Trump called Marcus a “truly great, patriotic & charitable man” in his Tweet thread, and slammed the “Radical Left Democrats” whom he claims are attacking him.
“They don’t want people to shop at those GREAT stores because he contributed … to your favorite President, me!” he wrote, before calling the potential boycotters “vicious and totally crazed.”
The boycott brouhaha erupted after Marcus recently told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that apart from donating $2 billion to charities already, and earmarking 80% to 90% of his wealth to philanthropy when he dies, he will also be giving an undisclosed amount toward Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign. Marcus previously gave $7 million to spending groups and to PACs supporting Trump in 2016, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Related: Home Depot co-founder will give 90% of his reported $4.5 billion fortune to charity
“He’s got a businessman’s common-sense approach to most things,” Marcus said. “Now, do I agree with every move that he makes? No, I don’t. But the truth is he has produced more than anybody else. He has. If we look at this country, I would say that we are better off today than we were eight years ago or six years ago.”
Some shoppers have been taking out their anger toward the retailer’s former chairman’s Trump support on the stores themselves, however, threatening to cut up their Home Depot cards and shop at competitors like Lowe’s LOW, -1.60% Others, like Trump, have come out in favor of the president, Marcus and the company, which does about $108 billion in annual sales.
A Home Depot representative told MarketWatch that Marcus retired from the company more than 15 years ago, and therefore “isn’t speaking on behalf of the company. In fact, as a standard practice, the company does not endorse presidential candidates.”
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