Businessman Trump Sends Businesses Running: Corporations Pullout from the GOP Convention

Less than a week after Donald Trump acquired the 1,237 delegates needed to grasp the nomination at the July convention sponsors are beginning to shy away, seeing that what they once thought was going to be a contested convention is now a reluctant coronation of Trump. Which, due to his complicated and often negative relationship with Hispanics, Muslims, blacks, and women, is causing companies to pull out in fear of how association with the Donald may affect their brand’s image.

The list of companies continues to grow, as HP Inc. goes public with its position and they are not alone. According to the New York Times:

“HP Inc. joins Coca-Cola and Microsoft in deciding to either significantly curtail or eliminate its monetary support to the Republican convention.”

Now none of the corporations listed above besides HP has decided to cut ties completely with the convention. Coca-Cola is only significantly decreasing its cash contributions from $660,000, which it gave in 2012, to $75,000, and Microsoft will continue to provide technical support but give no cash contributions, which it is expected to give to the DNC convention. Both of these actions make a clear statement of the companies’ disapproval of a Trump nomination. Yet the group behind the push for companies to pull out, Color for Change, is not done. They are continuing their attempt to pressure more companies out of the convention and will likely be doing so well into July.

This signifies yet another historic turning point in the polarization of American politics seeing that until now many of these companies had been long time supporters of both major party conventions. This major revelation will likely leave mainstream pundits clamoring about the negative effects of the possible loss of “business conservatives” for the Republican Party. They could be correct as we have already seen many Wall Street firms shore up ties with or move to the Clinton camp, many non-Wall Street firms could follow.

Yet they may just be misjudging the power of Trump once again. After all, following behind big government, whether it has always deserved it or not, big business gets an overall bad wrap with the general public and is often labeled to be part of the “establishment” that has caused the decline of America. So will the fleeing of major corporations from Trump play into his narrative of major corporations wrongly fleeing from American shores? If so, such an announcement may help cement Trump’s claim of being the outsider candidate the nation craves. Which will only fuel the fire of the Trump train, not put on the breaks.