Trump in 1989Renée C. Byer/Zuma

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Forget the United States Constitution. Former President Trump blatantly violated the constitution of the Screen Actors Guild, and the union’s disciplinary committee won’t have that.

The union wrote in a press release last month that a disciplinary committee would hear charges regarding “Trump’s role in inciting the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, and in sustaining a reckless campaign of misinformation aimed at discrediting and ultimately threatening the safety of journalists, many of whom are SAG-AFTRA members.” If Trump were found guilty, he’d face the most severe consequence possible: expulsion.

Trump may not have been willing to resign from the presidency, but the Screen Actors Guild? Pfft. In his words: “Who cares!” In a letter released today, Trump, still referring to himself as the president, declared that he no longer wished to be associated with the union—but not before bragging about his performances in Home Alone 2 and Zoolander.

Trump isn’t the first president to be a member of the guild. Former President Ronald Reagan served seven terms as its president and even managed to negotiate a residual payment system for actors. Too bad not all actors-turned-presidents could rely on the lasting respect of Hollywood.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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