With Trump’s kleptocratic kakistocracy (‘government by the worst of society), there are serious reasons to fear crony capitalism: everything from Team Trump sending major government contracts toward (potentially incompetent) Trump/Kushner business partners (and debt holders) to the White House press staff pimping Trump family businesses to violations of the Emoluments Clause to … Just to list reasons for concern would take up too many computer screens worth for simple blog post.
One of the ‘fear’ spaces, sparked by some PEOTUS Trump tweets, would be dramatic drops in stocks due to Trump vitriol and thus a fostering of Corporate-America kowtowing to Trump authoritarianism. There is real reason for concern here but also, amid the mounting (for example) @IndivisibleTeam #resistance as seen in townhalls around the nation, backlash is occurring.
After Trump attacked Nordstrom over its discontinuance of the Ivanka Trump line, some potentially surprising things occurred:
- Nordstrom stock went up … a lot.
- Nordstrom executives pushed back.
- White House staff Kelly Anne Conway violated the law by advocating people buy Ivanka Trump products — and even Republican Jason Chaffetz (who has been fighting against calls to investigate the myriad of issues over which Trump might already merit impeachment) acted by sending a letter to the White House attacking this action.
- People called going to shop at Nordstrom an act of resistance … and at least some acted on it.
The image above is an excellent example of that Nordstrom shopping and linking it to resistance. And, how that rapidly gains widespread attention such as through a Chelsea Handler tweet to her 6.54 million followers.
The word is spreading … businesses are realizing that getting attacked by Trump is good for their brand and good for their bottom-line.
And, in terms of the DC-area and Virginia, we are seeing changes to our daily lives with increasing numbers of protests (including potential boosts to economic activity due to 10,00s and 100,000s of out-of-towners coming to the DC-area for
Have you seen Barbara?
If so, please report sightings to VA-10 constituents.
anti-Trump rallies), Republican members of Congress showing fear of open engagement opportunities with their constituents (such as Dave Brat and Barbara Comstock), and even the potential that (as with Nordstrom’s) specific stores might get crowded with customers in reaction to Tweeter-in-Chief 140-character broadsides.
UPDATE: In a correlated item, comedians are getting bumps in ratings if they skewer Trump.
Sign up for the Blue Virginia weekly newsletter
