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 comes after the union wanted to oust him for his role in inciting the coup attempt at the Capitol, which resulted in five deaths.
In the letter to SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris, Trump cited several examples of his esteemed work in the theater, such as the one 1994 episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air he appears in.
Here is the full letter:
I am writing to you today regarding the so-called disciplinary committee hearing aimed at revoking my union membership. Who cares!
Although I’m not familiar with your work, I’m very proud of my work on films such as Home Alone 2, Zoolander, and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps; and television programs, including The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Saturday Night Live, and of course one of the most successful programs in television history, The Apprentice – to name a few!
I also helped the cable news television industry a lot (a dying platform with little time left until I got involved in politics) and created thousands of jobs at networks like MSDNC and Fake News CNN, among others.
This brings me to your blatant attempt at free media attention to distract from your gloomy record as a union. Your organization has done little for its members, and nothing for me – except to collect fees and promote dangerous non-US policies and ideas – as evidenced by your massive unemployment rate and lawsuits by celebrated actors, who even recorded a video with the question: ‘Why isn’ t the union not fighting for me? ”
However, these are policy failures. Your disciplinary failures are even worse.
I no longer want to be associated with your union. As such, this letter should inform you of my immediate exit from SAG-AFTRA. You did
nothing for me.
In a very concise statement from the union in response to Trump’s letter, SAG-AFTRA said: “Thank you.”
Trump’s resignation “you can not fire me, I quit” comes just over two weeks after the union announced it was taking steps to revoke its membership over the same charges he was charged with (which made him the first president charged) twice).
“Donald Trump has attacked the values that hold this union most sacred – democracy, truth, respect for our fellow Americans of all races and faiths, and the sanctity of the free press,” Carteris said. “There is a straight line from his disregard for the truth to the attacks on journalists by his followers.”
The union also said the move to oust Trump was the result of his “reckless campaign of misinformation aimed at discrediting and ultimately threatening the safety of journalists, many of whom are SAG-AFTRA members.
“Our most important role as a trade union is the protection of our members. The unfortunate truth is that this individual’s words and actions over the past four years have done real damage to our members of the broadcasting journalists, ”said David White, the national executive director of SAG-AFTRA.