Is kicking the tech bros in the um, wallet an effective way to rein in Trump?

Well, well – look who had better seats at Trump’s inauguration than his own Cabinet members. Is that guilt on Mark Zuckerberg’s face? Nah. (AP Pool Photo)

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💰 Kick them in the um, wallet

My “What can I do?” post from Jan. 28 listed ways that people could help undocumented (and legal) immigrants in Minneapolis (or anybody who is not white, for that matter). They are being targeted, assaulted, and detained by ICE and Border Patrol, and many nonprofits and other organizations are stepping in to help. It was the most read and most shared Fast Forward newsletter in a long time. You can read it here.

But it was clear in your comments and emails that you want to do more. In fact, one Fast Forward reader emailed to say that she was so dismayed by Home Depot’s cooperation with ICE — letting agents set up in their parking lots and nab customers who may or may not be undocumented immigrants — that she cut her Home Depot card in half and called the company to cancel her account.

“I realized there was something I could do,” she wrote. “Cut off any sources of income from me.”

Which brings me to a campaign by Scott Galloway, the NYU marketing professor, entrepreneur, and author who frequently rails against the monopolies enjoyed by big tech companies, especially Alphabet (Google, YouTube, Android), Amazon, Apple, and Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads).

Yes, Galloway’s the guy whose recent comments about the so-called male loneliness epidemic have struck many as implying that women are at least partly to blame. The Matriarchal Blessing newsletter by Celeste Davis here on Substack sets out the case really well.

But his latest idea has merit: For the month of February, drop your subscriptions and memberships in the big tech and AI companies to try to effect a change in their market values.

Galloway praises the protests and resistance in Minneapolis and elsewhere as absolutely critical to keep the spotlight on the shocking abuses by ICE and Border Patrol agents. But he points out that Trump is unfazed by outrage and unmoved by protests. “Praised by tech CEOs, surrounded by sycophants, emboldened by multimillion-dollar settlements, and enriched by his return to the White House,” Galloway writes, “Trump marches on unchecked.”

But wait — there is something that gets Trump’s attention: The capital markets. The Orange Menace is rather dim, so he thinks that the stock market is the same as the economy. Job growth may be slow, inflation may be pinching, and farmers may be going bankrupt, but if the S&P 500 ticks up a few points, then Trump’s happy; Big Macs all around! Like I said: a simpleton.

Galloway thinks we can use this irrational focus on the stock market to our advantage by leveraging it as a potent weapon of resistance. He wants compassionate, fair-minded Americans to join a month-long national economic strike targeting tech and AI companies.

Why only tech and AI companies? Two reasons, Galloway says:

1) Remember Trump’s most recent inauguration, where his Cabinet picks had to sit behind the likes of Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, and Elon Musk? Remember who’s helping pay for his ballroom? Remember who funded the “Melania” documentary? (More on that below.) These guys have gone out of their way to flatter and enrich Trump, so he listens to them.

2) A modest reduction in their companies’ growth could have a ripple effect and a substantial impact on valuations. He explains:

Unsubscribing to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude are among the first steps. Although only 5% of ChatGPT’s more than 800 million users last year paid for a subscription, a pullback would sting. If enough people cut spending on AI, it could spill over to other companies, including Nvidia and Microsoft. You could also unsubscribe from a range of other tech offerings — Amazon, Apple, Disney, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, and Uber — and hold off on buying your next iPhone or Mac. While tech and AI are the main focus, the strike could expand to target companies enabling ICE, including AT&T, Dell, and Fedex, which have contracts with the agency. (See all the options on the Resist and Unsubscribe website.)

Employee walkouts and businesses closing for a day are good for symbolism and solidarity, Galloway points out, but in reality, hurts only the workers and the businesses.

“We’re proposing something quieter and less cinematic than a protest that will run all day on cable TV, but much more disturbing to the Trump administration,” he says. “A one-day slowdown is irritating. A one-month slump is terrifying.”

We know that such boycotts/unsubscribing works: Just look at Jimmy Kimmel and the estimated 7 million Disney+/Hulu/ESPN subscription cancellations.

But this asks us to do more. Could you live without Amazon’s convenience for a month? Delete Facebook? Unsubscribe from Netflix?

On the other hand, could you live with yourself if you didn’t join the boycott and continued to watch our federal government abusing our neighbors?

Maybe you can start by reading more of Galloway’s reasoning at his No Mercy/No Malice website here. And if you want to explore which companies Galloway is targeting, you can find the list at his Resist and Unsubscribe website here — along with the names of 9 consumer-facing companies that he has identified as active enablers of ICE (we’re looking at you, Marriott).

If you really want to do more, maybe this is one possibility.

In the rest of this newsletter for paid subscribers: The almanac, weather, and sports intro; Trump’s plans to rig the midterms; the brutal “Melania” reviews, and a list of movies that are actually good.

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