Businessman and presidential candidate Donald Trump has been fired from NBC for comments he made tied to his radical stance on immigration.
The TV network announced Monday it was cutting ties with Trump, meaning it would not run his Miss USA or Miss Universe beauty pageants, Paul Farhi reported for The Washington Post.
This comes after Trump made some controversial comments in his speech announcing he would be running for president earlier this month. He commented that immigrants coming into the U.S. were a large problem with the country he would like to address, Jeremy Stahl wrote for Slate.
“The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems,” Trump said. “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
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This caused quite a bit of justifiable uproar among the immigrant community and people living in Mexico, so much so that Trump piñatas were being sold in Mexico.
"He surely doesn't know the contributions made by migrants from practically every nation in the world, who have supported the development of the United States," Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, Mexico’s interior minister, told reporters.
Spanish language TV network Univision then made it clear it would no longer be running these programs owned by Trump.
The focus then turned to NBC to fire Trump, Farhi reported. A Change.org petition to get the network to drop Trump received 219,000 signatures as of Tuesday.
That’s when the television giant responded to these calls. Officials said in a statement they would not run the two beauty pageants they partially owned with Trump, but “Celebrity Apprentice” would continue with a different host as the network had been planning before the speech was made, Farhi explained.
This development may have messed up some of Trump’s business plans, which he has put on hold to campaign for president.
“Mr. Trump has brushed off criticism over his comments and has said his wealth gives him the ability to speak his mind freely without worrying about political backlash or the need to please donors,” Alan Rappeport wrote for The New York Times.
Trump said he thought NBC’s response to his speech was uncalled for, especially given the way the company handled the situation with former NBC News Anchor Brian Williams, Rappeport reported.
"They will stand behind lying Brian Williams, but won’t stand behind people that tell it like it is," Trump said in a statement.
Given the “recent derogatory statements,” as NBC called them, the TV giant took a stand in favor of fairness and proper treatment of all people.
"At NBC, respect and dignity for all people are cornerstones of our values,” its statement read. “Due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants, NBC Universal is ending its business relationship with Mr. Trump."
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Shelby Slade is a writer for Deseret News National. Email: sslade@deseretdigital.com, Twitter: shelbygslade.