Progressives and Never Trumpers are calling for a boycott of Hobby Lobby over a viral image of a pro-Trump message spotted in a store display.
Opponents of the president renewed calls for a boycott of the Christian crafts and decor store following a viral image of a display reading, “USA VOTE TRUMP”:
However, there is no indication of who arranged the letters to send the pro-Trump message — whether an employee or customer. Nevertheless, critics took to social media to demand a boycott:
Others dismissed the mass outrage, pointing out that customers can easily rearrange displays to send messages in such displays, which are typically fixed by employees later:
This is far from the first time critics have targeted Hobby Lobby, who have called for boycotts of the business numerous times over the years.
Hobby Lobby founder and CEO David Green penned an op-ed ahead of the 2016 election, warning against then-Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s (D) opposition to Christian beliefs and voicing his support for then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
“For Americans who value freedom of religion, we must elect a president who will support a Supreme Court that upholds not only this freedom, but all that have emanated from it,” Green wrote in a September 2016 op-ed. “That president is Donald Trump.”
As Breitbart News reported at the time:
The Obama administration launched an unprecedented attack on people running their businesses according to their faith when his Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) created a regulation under the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or Obamacare) requiring employers to pay for abortion-related products and services.
As evangelical Christians, the Greens believe that life begins at conception, and that anything that aborts an unborn child after conception ends a human life. Hobby Lobby has 30,000 employees, so not funding abortion-related drugs for its employees (not regular birth control, but rather drugs that induce abortions after conception) meant the company would have to pay $1.3 million per day — almost half a billion dollars per year—in penalties under Obamacare.
Hobby Lobby and the Green family sued, eventually making it all the way to the nation’s highest court, represented by former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement. In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores held that this regulation violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).
Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden (D) has since vowed to reverse the religious protections exempting private businesses and religious groups from being forced to provide contraception coverage that violates their religious beliefs — coverage that includes abortifacients.
“As disappointing as the Supreme Court’s ruling is, there is a clear path to fixing it: electing a new President who will end Donald Trump’s ceaseless attempts to gut every aspect of the Affordable Care Act,” Biden reportedly said, promising to “restore the Obama-Biden policy that existed before the Hobby Lobby ruling: providing an exemption for houses of worship and an accommodation for nonprofit organizations with religious missions.”