Trump Breaks Silence on Bud Light Controversy

Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, Texas, on Aug. 6, 2022. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump weighed in on the Bud Light transgender influencer controversy for the first time over the weekend, suggesting people perform more boycotts of companies that pursue left-wing agendas.

“It’s time to beat the Radical Left at their own game,” Trump wrote in a post via Truth Social on Sunday. “Money does talk—Anheuser-Busch now understands that.”

Trump made the remark while promoting “The Great Patriot BUY-Cott Book” by Wayne Allyn Root, a conservative radio host and author, and Nicky Billou. The book offers a strategy to “DEFUND Leftist Woke Companies” and fund “patriotic” and “Christian” firms.

“Great new Book by Wayne Allyn Root,” Trump, the current leading GOP candidate for president, continued to say in what appears to be his first public comments on the issue. “Buy your copy today!”

The 45th president was responding to a highly visible public backlash against Bud Light after a transgender activist, Dylan Mulvaney, announced a partnership with the beer company. On social media, Mulvaney posted a Bud Light can that featured the activist’s likeness, although parent company Anheuser-Busch has since tried to distance itself from the controversy—and Mulvaney.

Anheuser-Busch CEO Michael Doukeris told investors on a conference call last week that just “one can” of Bud Light was produced to feature Mulvaney’s face, and he denied claims there would be an advertisement campaign. Mulvaney, however, wrote on TikTok that the two were involved in a partnership.

Going a step further, Doukeris told the Financial Times that the boycott was spurred by social media “misinformation and confusion,” adding: “You have one fact and every person puts an opinion behind the fact. And then the opinions start to be replicated fast on each and every comment. By the time that 10 or 20 people put a comment out there, the reality is no longer what the fact is, but is more [about] what the comments were.”

Last month, Donald Trump Jr. provoked criticism from some conservatives when he suggested consumers pull back from the boycott during a podcast. The eldest son of the former president appeared to be worried that Anheuser-Busch has been a significant donor to GOP candidates in the past and that a boycott might imperil future funding initiatives.

Then-President Donald Trump gives a thumbs-up after arriving for Christmas Eve dinner at Mar-a-lago in Palm Beach, Fla. on Dec. 24, 2019. Donald Trump Jr., his son, is pictured in foreground. Andrew Harnik/AP Photo

“So here’s the deal. Anheuser-Busch totally [expletive] the bed with this Dylan Mulvaney thing. I’m not, though, for destroying an American, an iconic, company for something like this,” Trump Jr. said during his “Triggered” podcast. “The company itself doesn’t participate in the same leftist nonsense as the other big conglomerates. Frankly, they don’t participate in the same woke garbage that other people in the beer industry actually do, who are significantly worse offenders when I looked into it.”

Other 2024 Responses

Former Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican presidential candidate, has spoken out about the Bud Light partnership with Mulvaney. Former Vice President Mike Pence, who is expected to announce his 2024 run in the near future, told RealClearPolitics that a boycott was merited.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a possible 2024 candidate, has also been vocal about supporting the Bud Light boycott.

“Why would you want to drink Bud Light?” DeSantis asked in an interview with conservative commentator Benny Johnson, “I mean like honestly, that’s like them rubbing our faces in it, and it’s like these companies that do this, if they never have any response, they are just going to keep doing it.”

He added that conservatives “have power as consumers” to make their voices heard on cultural issues. “Not on every company, because sometimes conservative consumers aren’t going to make a dent in some companies,” DeSantis added. “This one is one if you don’t have conservative beer drinkers, you’re going to feel that.”

Although some consumers might opt to look past the Mulvaney partnership, DeSantis argued it’s “part of a larger thing.”

“Corporate America is trying to change our country, trying to change policy, trying to change culture,” DeSantis added. “I’d rather be governed by ‘We the People’ than woke companies. I think [the] pushback is in order across the board including with Bud Light.”

President Joe Biden, meanwhile, has not directly responded to the controversy over Mulvaney. But his press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, alleged that the boycott has “[led] to bomb threats” and “has to stop,” without providing direct evidence.

“We should be able to speak out and others should be able to speak out, against hate and discrimination,” she told reporters at a briefing last month.

Bud Light’s overall sales for the week of April 17 plunged by 26 percent, according to reports citing industry data. That came after a 21 percent drop the week prior, and an 11 percent decline the week before that.

The firm will triple its planned investment around Bud Light over the summer, Doukeris told investors last week, adding that it was offering more support to wholesalers and other frontline workers.