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In this file photo, Goodyear tires are shown during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich., on Aug. 9, 2020.
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Trump ignites political firestorm in battleground Ohio over Goodyear tweet

AP photo / Paul Sancya

Trump ignites political firestorm in battleground Ohio over Goodyear tweet

President Donald Trump touched off a political firestorm on Wednesday when he suggested in a tweet that supporters should boycott Akron-based Goodyear Tire because a photo purportedly from a company training session deemed MAGA attire unacceptable for the workplace.

The president immediately faced backlash from Ohio Democrats, who are marking the anointment of Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden at their virtual convention this week.

During a news conference later in the day, Mr. Trump doubled down on his criticism of the tire-maker and accused the company of “playing politics.”

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“When they say that you can’t have Blue Lives Matter … you can’t wear a MAGA hat, but you have other things that are Marxist in nature, there’s something wrong with the top of Goodyear,” he said.

Less than 80 days from the election, the tweet gives Democrats more fodder to attack the president on jobs and manufacturing, two issues that Mr. Trump consistently draws attention to in Ohio and other battleground states. His visit to Whirlpool Corp.’s appliance plant in Clyde earlier this month was an economic pitch to a state that has lost jobs in manufacturing under his watch and is on a precarious path to economic recovery during the coronavirus crisis.

“For those of you who haven’t seen, Donald Trump in the last 30 minutes decided to go to war with Akron’s Goodyear Tire company, which also apparently makes the tires for the limo he rides in,” Ohio Democratic Party chairman David Pepper said during the party’s virtual luncheon, referencing a viral photo pointing out the Goodyear tires on Mr. Trump’s presidential limousine.

The Trump campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the president’s remark, and Ohio Republicans have been mostly silent. Through a spokesman, Gov. Mike DeWine had no official comment, but he told radio host Scott Sands that he hopes the president doesn’t tweet something like it again.

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“If he does, he does,” Mr. DeWine said. “I’m not going to disclose my conversations with the president. I don’t think he’s going to do it again.”

Ohio’s Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown said even though companies shouldn’t ban political speech, the president’s attack on an American manufacturer is wrong.

“I don’t care what people wear at work. People can put yard signs up, people can wear T-shirts and hats, Black Lives Matter T-shirts. I’m fine with that — it’s up to the employer,” Mr. Brown told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Tuesday afternoon. “But even if your employer says no political statements — I’m not a lawyer, I assume it’s a free speech issue and they can’t — but that’s never a reason for a president to attack an American company and say ‘boycott and instead buy cheap tires overseas.’”

Goodyear denied in a statement the company’s corporate headquarters had anything to do with the photo, and said it wasn’t related to any company training session. The company said all political campaigning is discouraged in the workplace, but that it supports equality and law enforcement.

“These are not mutually exclusive. We have heard from some of you that believe Goodyear is anti-police after reacting to the visual. Nothing could be further from the truth, and we have the utmost appreciation for the vital work police do on behalf of our shared communities,” Goodyear said.

Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. is one of Ohio’s top 100 employers, according to an analysis by Cleveland.com, with 3,000 people working at its headquarters in Akron, known as the Rubber City.

But in a state whose manufacturing might has waned, Goodyear, which has been in Akron since 1898, is the last major rubber-maker left in the city. Another American tire giant, Cooper Tire and Rubber Co., is based in northwest Ohio’s Findlay.

“Akron is known as the rubber city capital of the world, spurred by the innovation & work of Goodyear alongside the hardworking men and women who made it possible. We are very protective of our people and what made Akron the city it is today. Stand down,” Ohio House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes, an Akron native, tweeted to the president.

The episode began when a photo circulated online that appeared to a show a slide from a company training session in Kansas that deemed attire expressing support for Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ rights acceptable, but not Make America Great Again and Blue Lives Matter, raising the issue of the limits on political speech in the workplace.

“We always protect freedom of speech for our members, but we’ve never been in a showdown where we’ve been told we can’t wear something,” said Shaun Enright, executive secretary of the Northwest Ohio Building Trades.

Asked about the president’s tweet during a news briefing, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, “Goodyear needs to come out and clarify their policy … what was clearly targeted was a certain ideology.”

Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman released a brief statement: “I believe private companies are free to set their own guidelines, but I would hope they would do it fairly and objectively, with respect for free speech.”

The president’s remarks on Ohio manufacturing have a history of resurfacing. Since General Motors closed and sold its Lordstown plant, Democrats haven’t stopped reminding the president, Republicans, and on-the-fence voters that Mr. Trump told a crowd in Youngstown in 2017 not to sell their homes because manufacturing was on an upswing.

GM closed the Lordstown plant, which had been one of northeast Ohio’s major manufacturers producing the Chevrolet Cruze sedan, less than two years later.

During his first pandemic trip to Ohio, the president touted his trade policies and their impact on domestic manufacturing.

“Whirlpool became a shining example, from really a company that was down and out, it became a shining example of what tough trade policies and smart tariffs can bring to jobs and prosperity, to communities like this one all over Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and plenty of other states,” he said.

The Block News Alliance consists of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Blade of Toledo, Ohio, and television station WDRB in Louisville, Ky. Liz Skalka is a reporter for The Blade.

Click for more coverage

First Published: August 19, 2020, 10:34 p.m.

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In this file photo, Goodyear tires are shown during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich., on Aug. 9, 2020.  (AP photo / Paul Sancya)
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