Politics

Left-Wing Activists Target Donald Trump

Patrick Howley Political Reporter
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An activist who works for one of Washington’s top left-wing pressure organizations appears to have succeeded in stripping Donald Trump of his business relationship with the general store chain Macy’s.

Macy’s’ decision to end its business relationship with Trump is part of the recent trend of corporations cutting ties with the Republican candidate over his anti-amnesty comments.

Macy’s announced Wednesday morning that it would stop selling Trump clothing, joining NBCUniversal in parting ways with the billionaire.

Activist Angelo Carusone appeared on CNN Wednesday to discuss the Macy’s controversy. Carusone, an executive vice president at the rabidly pro-Hillary Clinton organization Media Matters for America, put together the MoveOn.org petition pressuring Macy’s to get rid of Trump. (RELATED: Carusone’s Racist Blog Posts).

Carusone, who was also a ringleader of an anti-Rush Limbaugh pressure campaign, started his “Dump Trump” campaign in earnest in 2012 — three years before Trump announced for president (Here’s Dump Trump’s Twitter account, registered in 2011).

And Carusone is using the same MoveOn.org petition! In other words, media outlets are reporting that the petition gained more than 700,000 signatures, making it seem like those signatures all happened overnight, rather than over the course of several years.

Carusone even sent mobile billboards around to Macy’s stores in 2012 to protest Trump. Carusone’s vaguely defined gripes against Trump at the time centered on Trump’s supposed “bigoted bullying.” The activist was employed by Media Matters at this time.

Trump lawyer Alan Garten, who threatened to sue Carusone in 2013, said at the time that “Sales are doing great, but it doesn’t mean we’re gonna sit back and allow a guy like this, who is a loser, to interfere with agreements we have with Macy’s and others.”

Trump called Carusone a “whack job” and a “dummy” on Twitter.

The progressive website Buzzfeed apparently sensed Trump’s viability, as well. Last year, Buzzfeed sent its political writer McKay Coppins to follow Trump for a feature-length hit piece.

The Macy’s deal aside, Trump currently holds 12 percent support in CNN/ORC polling on the 2016 Republican primary, trailing Jeb Bush by only seven points.

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