Helping to make America great again has become this retired Home Depot co-founder’s own DIY project.
Billionaire Bernie Marcus recently made headlines by sharing that he plans to give 80% to 90% of his wealth (estimated at $4.53 billion by Bloomberg, or $5.8 billion by Forbes) to charity when he dies. But the former Home Depot
chairman also revealed in the same Atlanta Journal-Constitution interview that he will be donating to Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign, as well. Indeed, he donated $7 million to help elect Trump in 2016, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Related: Home Depot co-founder will give 90% of his reported $4.5 billion fortune to charity
And now some enraged customers on social media say they are boycotting the home-improvement chain’s stores, which does about $108 billion in annual sales. They claim to be cutting up their Home Depot cards, and say they plan to shop at competitors like Lowe’s
and Menards, under the hashtag #BoycottHomeDepot. They have also responded to unrelated posts on Home Depot’s official Twitter
account with comments like “just say no to Home Depot” and “I will rot in the bowels of hell before I give one penny to @HomeDepot again.”
In response, a Home Depot representative told MarketWatch that Marcus retired from the company more than 15 years ago, and therefore “isn’t speaking on behalf of the company. In fact, as a standard practice, the company does not endorse presidential candidates.”
But Marcus, who retired as $231 billion company’s chairman in 2002, told the AJC that Trump has “got a businessman’s common-sense approach to most things.” He added that, “the truth is he has produced more than anybody else. He has. If we look at this country, I would say that we are better off today than we were eight years ago or six years ago.”
He also has some critiques for the commander-in-chief, however, such as “his communication sucks.”
