EXCLUSIVE: President Trump is resigning from the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists after they threatened to expel his membership from the union after the Capitol riot — to which he said, “Who cares!”
The former president’s letter of resignation Wednesday comes after the SAG-AFTRA board voted “overwhelmingly” that Trump violated the union’s membership guidelines in the wake of the Capitol riot.
Fox News exclusively obtained the letter sent to SAG President Gabrielle Carteris, slamming the union, the media and news organizations.
“I write to you today regarding the so-called Disciplinary Committee hearing aimed at revoking my union membership. Who cares!” Trump wrote to Carteris.
“While I’m not familiar with your work, I’m very proud of my work on movies such as Home Alone 2, Zoolander and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps; and television shows including The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Saturday Night Lives, and of course, one of the most successful shows in television history, The Apprentice—to name just a few!” Trump wrote.
Trump, who left office last month, said he has “also greatly helped the cable news television business (said to be a dying platform with not much time left until I got involved in politics), and created thousands of jobs at networks such as MSDNC and Fake News CNN, among many others.”
“Which brings me to your blatant attempt at free media attention to distract from your dismal record as a union,” Trump wrote. “Your organization has done little for its members, and nothing for me—besides collecting dues and promoting dangerous un-American policies and ideas—as evident by your massive unemployment rates and lawsuits from celebrated actors, who even recorded a video asking, ‘Why isn’t the union fighting for me?’”
Trump was referring to a video posted last year by actors like Mark Hammill, Whoopi Goldberg and Morgan Freeman, among others, who slammed the union’s health plan benefit cuts.
In the video, Goldberg asks: “Why isn’t the union fighting for me?”
Meanwhile, the former president slammed SAG for their “policy failures,” and further said their “disciplinary failures are even more egregious.”
“I no longer wish to be associated with your union,” Trump wrote. “As such, this letter is to inform you of my immediate resigning from SAG-AFTRA.”
He added: “You have done nothing for me.”
The president’s resignation comes after the Screen Actors Guild board voted “overwhelmingly” that Trump violated the union’s membership guidelines in the wake of the Capitol riot.
“Donald Trump attacked the values that this union holds most sacred – democracy, truth, respect for our fellow Americans of all races and faiths, and the sanctity of the free press,” Carteris said last month. “There’s a straight line from his wanton disregard for the truth to the attacks on journalists perpetrated by his followers.”
“Our most important role as a union is the protection of our members. The unfortunate truth is, this individual’s words and actions over the past four years have presented actual harm to our broadcast journalist members,” said SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director David White. “The board’s resolution addresses this effort to undermine freedom of the press and reaffirms the principles on which our democratic society rests, and which we must all work to protect and preserve.”
Trump had been a member of SAG since 1989.
His disciplinary hearing was set to take place this week.
The House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump for a second time last month, in the wake of the Capitol riot, saying he caused the insurrection. His Senate impeachment trial is set to begin next week.