Donald Trump the Home Alone 2: Lost in New York actor and former president of the United States, resigned from the Screen Actors Guild on Thursday in a letter that can only be described as extremely petty.
His resignation came after the union made a move to expel him for his role in inciting the Capitol coup attempt, which resulted in five deaths.
In the letter to SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris, Trump named several examples of his esteemed work in the theater arts, such as that 1994 episode of Fresh prince of Bel Air he appeared on.
Here is the letter in full:
I write to you today about the so-called hearing of the Disciplinary Committee with the aim of revoking my union membership. Who cares!
Although I am not familiar with his work, I am very proud of my work in films such as Home Alone 2, Zoolander and Wall Street: Money Never Sleep; and television shows, including The Cool Prince of Bel-Air, Saturday Night Live and, of course, one of the most successful shows in television history, The Apprentice – to name just a few!
I also helped the cable news business a lot (considered a dying platform and not much time left until I got involved in politics), and created thousands of jobs on networks like MSDNC and Fake News CNN, among many others.
Which leads me to your blatant attempt to get the media’s attention to divert attention from your dark history as a union. Your organization has done little for its members and nothing for me – other than charging fees and promoting dangerous non-American ideas and policies – as is evident from its mass unemployment rates and lawsuits from famous actors, who even recorded a video asking: “ Why isn’t the union fighting for me? “
These, however, are policy flaws. Their disciplinary failures are even more striking.
I no longer wish to be associated with your union. As such, this letter is to inform you of my immediate resignation from SAG-AFTRA. You did
nothing for me.
In a very succinct union statement in response to Trump’s letter, SAG-AFTRA said, “Thank you.”
Trump’s resignation of “you can’t fire me, I quit” comes just over two weeks after the union announced it was taking steps to revoke its membership on the same charges for which it had been impeached (which made it the first president to be impeached twice).
“Donald Trump attacked the values that this union considers most sacred – democracy, truth, respect for our fellow Americans of all races and religions, and the sanctity of the free press,” said Carteris. “There is a straight line that goes from your unrestrained contempt for the truth to attacks on journalists perpetrated by your followers.”
The union also said that the action to expel Trump was the result of his “reckless disinformation campaign aimed at discrediting and ultimately threatening the safety of journalists”, many of whom are members of SAG-AFTRA.
“Our most important role as a union is to protect our members. The sad truth is that this individual’s words and actions over the past four years have done real damage to the members of our broadcast journalists, ”said David White, the national executive director of SAG-AFTRA.