Former President Donald Trump, who is also a former reality show host with some cameo film appearances to his credit, has resigned from SAG-AFTRA, according to a letter in which he trumpets his acting career and trashes cable news and the union.
That came after disciplinary charges were filed by the union against Trump by SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris and national executive director David White.
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On Jan. 19, the SAG-AFTRA National Board voted "overwhelmingly" to find probable cause that Trump, for his role in "inciting the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, and in sustaining a reckless campaign of misinformation aimed at discrediting and ultimately threatening the safety of journalists, many of whom are SAG-AFTRA members" had violated the union's constitution and that, if found guilty, could be expelled.
In a letter from Trump in response to the planned disciplinary committee hearing on revoking his membership, Trump said he continued to be proud of his 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 Live," as well as "of course, one of the most successful shows in television history, The Apprentice – to name just a few!"
The former president also said he had helped the cable news business, which he added was "said to be a dying platform with not much time left until I got involved in politics," and trump-eted the jobs he had created at MSNBC (which he called "MSDNC" as he frequently does to suggest it is a Democratic functionary, and at "Fake News CNN," among others.
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"Which brings me to your blatant attempt at free media attention to distract from your dismal record as a union," he said. "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?' These, however, are policy failures. Your disciplinary failures are even more egregious. I no longer wish to be associated with your union."
The union clearly no longer wished to be associated with the former reality star. Its reply to Trump's letter was: "Thank you."
SAG-AFTRA on Trump's resignation from the union: Thank you. https://t.co/n1BUAMcqQ1February 4, 2021
