Faced with expulsion, Donald Trump quits Screen Actors Guild

Donald Trump/picture courtesy: AFP

Former US President Donald Trump has resigned from the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) after its national leadership voted to consider expelling him over his role in inciting the January riots on the US Capitol. In his resignation letter to the SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris regarding the "so-called Disciplinary Committee hearing aimed at revoking my union membership," Trump said he "no longer wish to be associated" with the union.

"Who cares," Trump said. He further wrote how he was "proud" of his work in movies such as "Home Alone 2" and "Saturday Night Live" -- to name "just a few".

According to The Washington Post, in response to Trump's letter, SAG-AFTRA issued a concise statement: "Thank you." Trump in his resignation letter said that he "greatly helped" cable news and "created thousands of jobs" and went on to call the disciplinary failures as "even more egregious".

"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," the former President wrote.

"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," he added.

Trump further went on to attack the organisation by calling out the " blatant attempt" at free media attention to distract from your (the organisation's) 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?'," Trump stated.

"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," the former commander in chief wrote.

The union announced in mid-January that its national board had "voted overwhelmingly" in favor of holding a disciplinary hearing over Trump's actions, with the potential consequences ranging from fines and suspension to expulsion. The charges came from Carteris, SAG-AFTRA stated in a news release, and cite both Trump's role in inciting the attack and "in sustaining a reckless campaign of misinformation aimed at discrediting and ultimately threatening the safety of journalists."

"Donald Trump attacked the values that this union holds most sacred -- democracy, truth, respect for our fellow Americans of all races and faiths, and the sanctity of the free press," Carteris said in the release, as quoted by The Washington Post.

The former President had been a member of SAG-AFTRA since 1989.