Home Depot Co-founder Responds to Boycott Threats Over Trump Support

Home Depot Co-founder Responds to Boycott Threats Over Trump Support
A sign is posted in front of a Home Depot store in El Cerrito, Calif., on Aug. 14, 2018. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The billionaire co-founder of Home Depot Bernie Marcus has responded to threats of a boycott of the home improvement store in a Facebook post.

“I woke up this morning thinking it was going to be another great day. I’ve been celebrating with friends, family and the community since I turned 90. I’ve told you about the gracious gift of $117 million that was collected and given in my honor to four charities that mean a lot to me. All that happiness blew up because I said in a newspaper interview that I have supported and will continue to support Donald Trump,” the home improvement giant co-founder Bernie Marcus wrote in a July 10 post in a public Facebook group Bernie Marcus: My Thoughts on Everything.

The hashtag #BoycottHomeDepot was trending on Twitter July 8 after Marcus expressed his support for President Donald Trump and said he intends donate some of his fortune to support his 2020 re-election campaign in an interview with Atlanta Journal-Constitution published on June 30.

Marcus explained in the Facebook post that he has not been affiliated with Home Depot for nearly two decades and has used his money to support causes that benefit the public.

“Boom! Negative stories … vicious threats, without cause, to boycott the company that has enabled my foundation to give billions to support autism, medical research, education, heart and neurological issues like stroke, and to help our veterans. The company that I retired from in 2002 and have not had a business relationship with in almost 20 years.”

He stressed that a boycott would hurt the hundreds of thousands it employs, all of which come from various political affiliations and backgrounds.

“A company that has employed more than a half-million people. The people who work there are affiliated with both political parties or no party at all. They are of all religions and all colors and backgrounds. Why would people want to hurt them?”

It’s not the first time Marcus has donated to the president. He gave to Trump’s campaign in 2016 and also in the 2018 midterm elections, according to Open Secrets.

Marcus compared the responses he’s received over his personal opinions and choices to something experienced in China, Argentina, and Russia.

“All because I give my voice and some of my money to our President. Am I in China? Argentina? Russia? That’s what it feels like to me,” Marcus added, in the Facebook post. “It saddens me that our country has come to this, where I, as a private citizen, cannot express my feelings. It angers me and it saddens me, but it sure as hell is not going to stop me. If you thought it would, you’ve got the wrong guy.”

“In the next ten years, God willing, I will accomplish more to save this world than my critics will do even if they had forty lifetimes,” he wrote on Facebook.

The Atlanta billionaire is an avid philanthropist and has previously said he wants to use his fortune for causes that are important to him, in an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that was published last month.

“I want to live to be 100 because I want to be in a position to give [my money] away to those things that I really believe in.”

For his 90th birthday this year, he brought in about $117 million in donations for philanthropic causes, according to AJC.

The newspaper estimates that on top of what Marcus has already donated, he could donate over $6 billion in his lifetime to various philanthropic causes.

President Donald Trump defended Marcus over Twitter.

“A truly great, patriotic & charitable man, Bernie Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot who, at the age of 90, is coming under attack by the Radical Left Democrats with one of their often-used weapons. They don’t want people to shop at those GREAT stores because he contributed to your favorite President, me!,” Trump wrote on the social media site July 10.

These people are vicious and totally crazed but remember, there are far more great people (‘Deplorables’) in this country, than bad. Do to them what they do to you. Fight for Bernie Marcus and Home Depot!” Trump wrote.

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