Former President Donald Trump Banned From Future Readmission By SAG-AFTRA

Following Donald Trump’s resignation from the union earlier this week, SAG-AFTRA — the organization that represents entertainment and media professionals around the world — has taken steps to permanently bar the former president from becoming a member in the future.

As relayed by Variety’s Ellise Shafer on Sunday, the labor union just passed a resolution banning Trump from applying for readmission. The move was officially approved during a Zoom conference one day earlier, with SAG-AFTRA citing his “antagonism” of its represented journalists, as well as an exhibited “disregard for the values and integrity of the union” as cause for the ban.

Trump had officially tendered his resignation on February 4 with a blistering letter sent to SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris. In the document, which was subsequently posted online, he took the organization to task for a litany of perceived ills.

Specifically, the former commander-in-chief claimed the union was largely failing in representing its members or doing anything for him in particular, outside of collecting membership dues.

“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,” he wrote.

The letter was received one day before SAG-AFTRA’s Disciplinary Committee was slated to conduct a hearing to review Trump’s membership status going forward. Carteris had first initiated disciplinary action against Trump in mid-January in the wake of the Jan. 6 march on the U.S. Capitol that ultimately resulted in five deaths and many more injuries, some of which were incurred by journalists. Trump has been accused of inciting the violence, resulting in his current impeachment trial in the Senate.

In response to his resignation, SAG-AFTRA had a simple reply.

“Thank you,” they wrote.

After the resolution to bar Trump from future membership was passed on Saturday, Carteris indicated it should serve as a resounding statement of the group’s stance against violence.

“Preventing Donald Trump from ever rejoining SAG-AFTRA is more than a symbolic step,” she said. “It is a resounding statement that threatening or inciting harm against fellow members will not be tolerated. An attack against one is an attack against all.”

The former president had been a card-carrying member since 1989, the year of his earliest on-screen credits in the film Ghosts Can’t Do It and the music video for Bobby Brown’s “On Our Own.” He also appeared in films like Home Alone 2, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and Zoolander, in addition to his television work, most notably on his reality series The Apprentice.