Donald Trump, an actor who has appeared in Home Alone 2 and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and a former President, is no longer a member of the Screen Actors Guild. He actually resigned via a letter of such remarkable pettiness that it ranks among his finest performances.
Resigning was actually Trump’s way of getting ahead of the inevitable, as the labor union was already attempting to kick him out for his role in inciting the riots at the U.S. Capitol that left five dead and others maimed and wounded. Trump, perhaps assuming the writing was on the wall, sent a letter to SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris, which you can read in full below. Just make sure your petty defenses are fully charged.
I write to you today regarding the so-called Disciplinary Committee hearing aimed at revoking my union membership. Who cares!
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 Live, and of course, one of the most successful shows in television history, The Apprentice – to name just a few!
I’ve 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. 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. As such, this letter is to inform you of my immediate resignation from SAG-AFTRA. You have done nothing for me.
Perfect. Just perfect. Honestly, hang it in the Louvre. No matter your opinion on Trump — and we’ve all got opinions on Trump — there’s no denying that this letter just works. It nails that hard-to-define talking to a manager tone that people of a certain level of privilege use when they go into “here’s-a-piece-of-my-mind” mode, but nobody deploys it like Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps‘ own Donald Trump. It communicates everything the letter writer wants to communicate: disdain, disgust, disinterest and, ultimately, dismissal. “You have done nothing for me.” Chef’s kiss.
In addition to being an actor, Trump was President of the United States for four years. His administration proved divisive, very popular with his base while deeply loathed by his critics. However, his actions following the 2020 election, which included casting baseless conspiracy theories about the integrity of the voting process and inciting a mob of supporters to storm the Capitol building, pushed away even many former allies.