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LOADINGERROR LOADING MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow on Monday denounced the companies that are contributing money to President Donald Trump’s costly White House ballroom project — including MSNBC’s very own parent company, Comcast. The “Rachel Maddow Show” host argued that the corporations doing business with Trump and his administration might be profiting from it, but could also be tarnishing their legacies. Advertisement Contractors like Avelo Airlines are “excited to make money off of ICE, to make money off of Trump’s deportations,” Maddow said, “and that is, of course, Avelo’s right to compete for contracts like that.” But, she cautioned, the public also has the right to boycott and protest Avelo for participating in Trump’s “utterly lawless, chaotic, shambolic deportation regime.” “For every Avelo Airlines … for every corporation like our parent company, for another hot minute, Comcast, that wants to pay for Trump to take a literal wrecking ball — excuse me, an excavator — to the White House,” she added, “those public-facing companies should know there’s a cost in terms of their reputation with the American public.” Advertisement “There may be a cost to their bottom line when they do things against American values, against the public interest, because they want to please Trump or buy him off or profit somehow from his authoritarian overthrow of our democracy,” Maddow warned. Trump hosted a White House dinner last week to thank the companies and individuals who donated to his ballroom project. He claimed in July that construction would cost $200 million, but the estimate has since leaped to $300 million. Advertisement The White House provided NBC News with an official list of donors last week, including Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Meta and Comcast. Trump has launched mass deportations, deployed the National Guard to U.S. cities, ordered masked immigration agents to snatch civilians off the street and deported people in open defiance of federal judges. Forget BallroomsHelp Build aNewsroom Your SupportFuelsOur Mission Your SupportFuelsOur Mission Become a HuffPost Member When power gathers under golden ceilings, real journalism stands outside, asking the questions that matter. Join HuffPost Membership and keep independent reporting strong for everyone. We remain committed to providing you with the unflinching, fact-based journalism everyone deserves. Thank you again for your support along the way. We’re truly grateful for readers like you! Your initial support helped get us here and bolstered our newsroom, which kept us strong during uncertain times. Now as we continue, we need your help more than ever. We hope you will join us once again. We remain committed to providing you with the unflinching, fact-based journalism everyone deserves. Thank you again for your support along the way. We’re truly grateful for readers like you! Your initial support helped get us here and bolstered our newsroom, which kept us strong during uncertain times. Now as we continue, we need your help more than ever. We hope you will join us once again. Support HuffPost Already a member? Log in to hide these messages. The nationwide “No Kings” protests earlier this month were held precisely in opposition to Trump’s authoritarian moves. Maddow also pointed to protests Saturday outside Trump Tower in New York City. Advertisement “Protests may or may not move Donald Trump himself, although these people at Trump Tower in New York this weekend were doing their best to try to make sure that it does,” she said on Monday. “But even if protest doesn’t move Trump directly, it constrains his power — by moving the public-facing, consumer-facing people and entities that he has to enlist in what he’s trying to do.”
