RUSH: Donald Trump tweeted at 10:34 this morning the following: “Don’t buy GOODYEAR TIRES — They announced a BAN ON MAGA HATS.

“Get better tires for far less!” He says, “This is what the Radical Left Democrats do. Two can play the same game, and we have to start playing it now!” What he means is, the radical left out there is starting to boycott everybody. They’re getting out there, saying, “Boycott that place, boycott that place,” because they don’t agree with their politics. It’s about time we started playing the same game.

So he tweets, “Don’t buy GOODYEAR TIRES — They announced a BAN ON MAGA HATS. Get better tires for far less!” Now there’s a press release from Goodyear: “A message from Goodyear to our customers, partners, and associates: Yesterday, Goodyear became the focus of a conversation that created some misconceptions about our policies and our company.

“For those not aware, a widely circulated image sparked a strong reaction, and we wanted to take the opportunity to provide some important context to the visual and of our policies. First, the visual in question was not created or distributed by Goodyear corporate, nor was it part of a diversity training class. To be clear on our long-standing corporate policy, Goodyear has zero tolerance for any forms of harassment or discrimination. …

“Second, we appreciate the diverse viewpoints of all of our more than 60,000 associates,” blah, blah. “Third and finally, Goodyear has always wholeheartedly supported both equality and law enforcement and will continue to do so.” Bottom line: Goodyear is making a hasty retreat, ladies and gentlemen, from yesterday where they had made it abundantly clear that they had put a ban on Make America Great Again hats.

You couldn’t wear them. If you were an employee, you couldn’t wear one. They don’t want you to. Because, once again, here’s Goodyear. They might have a leftist CEO who hates Trump, but more than likely they think Twitter is America, and so they think a majority of Americans hate Trump and hate Make America Great Again.

So, they think they’re making a business decision. It’s just totally out of touch. Anyway, they learned that they’re actually focusing on the exact opposite. This is how Trump gets results.

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RUSH: This is John in Akron, Ohio. Great to have you, sir.

CALLER: Hello, Rush.

RUSH: Hi.

CALLER: I think it was outrageous that Goodyear came up with the demands of their employees. And I think it was good to call ’em out on it, but I think it was also outrageous or not so smart to say not to buy tires from Goodyear anymore. They happen to be the only tire company in the United States now. Akron is the rubber capital of the world. All the tires were made here at one time. But I think that needed to be rethought. Maybe it still can be corrected.

RUSH: Well, I think it’s gonna get fixed. I think Goodyear is reversing course, are they not?

CALLER: I don’t know. I haven’t heard that myself.

RUSH: Well, that’s the point of the story. Goodyear has put out a press release here, “A message from Goodyear to our customers, partners, and associates. Yesterday Goodyear became the focus of a conversation that created some misconceptions about our policies in our company.” So they’re doing a mea culpa here.

CALLER: Yeah, a bit of one there, huh? I think that maybe it would be also good for the campaign, the Trump campaign to maybe address the fact that they are the only tire company based in the U.S. and because that’s so important to us right now, U.S. products are so important, I think it would be a good idea to maybe revisit that a little bit.

RUSH: This is actually quite fascinating to me. And I don’t have enough tame here to get into it with you because I’ve got another break coming up, but you hang on out there, John, keep listening, because I’m gonna address this. This is fascinating to me. I’ll tell you why in a minute.

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RUSH: So Goodyear yesterday issues a statement… Let me see if I can find Trump’s tweet here that got this all started. What did I do with Trump’s tweet? This is my fault. I put things in a different Stack than where they were in. I might have thrown it away. Anyway, Trump issues a tweet urging people not to buy Goodyear because they don’t allow Make America Great Again hats to be worn by their employees.

Trump fires years back and suggests that (paraphrased), “If that’s the way they’re gonna be, then I’m gonna urge you not to buy Goodyear tires. It’s like the way the left plays the game, and if they’re gonna play it that way, I’m gonna fire right back.” What he’s talking about is boycotts. The left is famous for trying to damage American business and American media people by boycotting, announcing and promoting boycotts of their shows by advertisers.

So Trump says, “I’m sick and tired of sittin’ around watching this happen to people with nobody doing anything about it,” and now they’re attacking him. The employees that love Trump and support Trump at Goodyear can’t show it. He said, “To heck with this!” So has a urging people not to buy Goodyear tires. A caller said, “This is bad. This is bad. A president can’t do that.

x”Goodyear’s the only company in America making tires! We need to patronize them and so forth.” I understand that. But as somebody who has been involved in these boycotts — as somebody who has successfully beaten them back (because we found out what they really are and the relatively few number of people actually behind them) — I have an entirely different perspective.

I am of the belief that you have to push back on this stuff. You have to find a way to push back on it. Why should the left be the only ones who benefit or get away with this kind of thing? So I understand the sensitivity. It may not be wise for the president to start telling the American people not to patronize individual business, but I guarantee he’s got an objective here.

His objective is to allow, ultimately have it made possible that people can wear Make America Great Again hats at Goodyear. His objective is not to harm Goodyear. His objective is not that at all. His objective is protecting his brand and showing support for his supporters. The problem with this is that the left or anybody will always be able to come up with a way of doing things that make it look like you’re not talking about the moral high ground if you respond to them.

But I fully support the president in this, ’cause I think all of this is based on a bunch of misconceptions anyway. I don’t know why Goodyear did what they did, but I’m gonna make a wild assumption that Goodyear is like so many other entities and businesses. They have complete misunderstanding of the makeup of the American population.

They — because they also watch the mainstream media — believe that Twitter is America, and they believe that Donald Trump is universal hated and despised now. I’m sure somebody at Goodyear thinks that, and there’s a lot of people at a lot of places who think that. If all you’ve done is watch ABC, CBS, NBC for the last four years or read the New York Times, you’d be well within your rights believing that Donald Trump is despised and is gonna lose the election in a landslide.

That people can’t stand him, that people are regretting that they voted for him in the first place. This is what you would believe if all you’ve had as your, quote-unquote, “source for news” is the mainstream media. But it isn’t true. Donald Trump’s base has not left him, and the support for Trump within the Republican Party hovers between 91 and 95%.

Meantime, there isn’t any enthusiasm to speak of for Joe Biden or Kamala Harris, so much so that their convention ratings are in the toilet. But I am convinced that Goodyear and a number of other companies simply believe that Trump is hated, and I think that they thought — from a marketing standpoint — that were associating themselves with a majority of the American people.

Now, again, I think there’s no excuse for this, because Goodyear obviously has a vast marketing department. As such, Goodyear could find out if they wanted. Anybody could. Anybody can a find out, “Is Trump universally hated or not? Is he universally despised or not?” There would be ways of determining if this is an accurate assumption.

You’d have to look pretty hard because every poll has Trump losing monumentally, except the latest CNN poll. Every poll has Trump universally hated and despised. In fact, the Goodyear reaction is exactly what the media is after. The Goodyear reaction is exactly what the Democrat Party is after, and that’s why Trump just can’t let it stand.

He’s got to push back against it, and this is what pushback looks like. This is who he is. This is no different than what Trump has been doing since Day One. It’s no different than what he’s been doing since his campaign began.

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RUSH: Carrollton, Virginia. Warren, you’re next. It’s great to have you here, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Hello, Rush. How are you?

RUSH: I’m good, sir. I’m glad you called. Thank you.

CALLER: My comment is to the Goodyear positions that were put out this week. You have to remember Goodyear is not just a tire company. They are also a defense contractor, and they have to basically toe in to a lot of contractual requirements that happens there. But I think really what they are reacting to is their middle management, college educated folks that expect them to tamp down things against Trump and elevate the other opinions. And I think that’s why they came out with this.

RUSH: Wait a minute. You think the middle management at Goodyear doesn’t like Trump, therefore, they don’t like the employees there who do wearing MAGA hats, and so they expected upper management to make the MAGA people kind of tone it down and not let ’em wear the hats?

CALLER: Well, yeah. I work for a very large defense contractor myself, and it became very clear to me that if you wanted to express any kind of conservative position, it was probably not welcome.

RUSH: Okay. So to follow your theory, Goodyear is actually responding to employees, not customers?

CALLER: Oh. Absolutely.

RUSH: You think Goodyear is trying to keep the anti-Trump employees happy?

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: And they don’t care about the pro-Trump employees being unhappy?

CALLER: Yeah. Especially if they’re older white males, they just would wish ’em to move on.

RUSH: Well, you may have a point. You know, you may be right about that. There could well be an element of truth in that. We’ve run up against this. I’m trying to think of another corporate example. There have been gobs of them since Trump was inaugurated back in 2017. You know, I’ve always come down on the side that there’s a lot of fear, and it’s misplaced.

Now, there’s also some political activism. I know that it is a myth anymore that Big Business tycoons and Wall Street people are exclusively Republican. They aren’t anymore. The Democrat Party is bankrolled by Wall Street, for example. Take a look at the money Kamala Harris gets, or Plugs, or Obama. The idea that the Republican Party and Wall Street or Big Business are inseparable, that ended I don’t know how long ago. They are tied at the hip with Democrats now, for a host of reasons. And a lot of it is crony capitalism and crony socialism.

Let me give you an example of what I mean. People think that Walmart because it’s Arkansas and Mr. Sam and their family values, is a very, very conservative organization. And they may have been. And they may be. But if they’ve got a chance to sidle up to big government and an opportunity presents itself to put their competitors out of business, they’ll do it. It’s not just Walmart. I mean, this is one of the problems with a gigantic, Big Government that wants to involve itself in things.

So let’s say the minimum wage comes up as an issue. Now, we would think that Walmart would be diametrically opposed to it. “Don’t tell me what I have to pay people. I’ve got a lot of people, you’re gonna bankrupt me. You can’t tell me, government can’t.” That’s what we would expect them to say. But let’s look at their competitors. Let’s say Costco, pick some other big box stores that Walmart would consider competitors, Walmart went along with it. (interruption) Okay. Yeah, I’m long here. I gotta take a break. I’m losing track of time. Hang on, folks. It happens when I’m on a roll.

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RUSH: Anyway, my point was gonna be that if Walmart can cause a lot of financial pain to Costco and others by agreeing with a minimum wage increase, they would do it. It’s just an example. But this is the kind of crony socialism, crony capitalism that happens in government, and this is how you might think that conservative organizations would not do things they end up doing because business will always come first before politics, with some people. With others, of course, it’s the exact opposite.

As far as the Goodyear example, I can believe that a bunch of employees at Goodyear don’t like Trump supporters and would press management. I’ve heard of this happening in other businesses. But I still think you push back against it. I think pushing back against it like Trump did has proven to be the way to go. It’s proven to be successful.