Donald Trump Attacks Nordstrom For Dropping Ivanka Trump Fashion Line

Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday after Nordstrom dropped his daughter Ivanka Trump‘s clothing and accessory line from its shelves.

DONALD TRUMP ATTACKS NORDSTROM FOR DROPPING IVANKA LINE

While Trump has called out various companies for criticizing him, sometimes causing his supporters to boycott their products, this is the first time he is doing it to defends his family’s personal fortunes. “My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom,” he tweeted Wednesday morning. “She is a great person — always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!”

The tweet came from Trump’s personal Twitter account, but then the president followed up by re-posting it from his official White House account. This reaction also brings into question how Trump will handle similar situations from many more brands. T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and Neiman Marcus have all taken steps to give Ivanka’s brand less prominence in their stores.

“For people to take out their concern about his actions, or his executive orders, on members of his family, he has every right to stand up for his family,” said press secretary Sean Spicer, who defended the president’s tweet, saying it was not about business but about “an attack on his daughter.”

Nordstrom responded to Spicer’s comments on Wednesday, and cited poor sales performance of Ivanka’s brand as the main reason for pulling the line. “Over the past year, and particularly in the last half of 2016, sales of the brand have steadily declined to the point where it didn’t make good business sense for us to continue with the line for now,” the Nordstrom statement said. “We’ve had a great relationship with the Ivanka Trump team.”

While ethics experts have deemed Trump’s reaction as inappropriate, they nevertheless maintain that the president’s action did not violate any conflict of interest rules. Presidents are exempt from ethics laws followed by other government officials that prevent them from using their positions to benefit themselves or their family financially.

“It is a total misuse of presidential power,” says Lawrence M. Noble, general counsel of the Campaign Legal Center and former top lawyer at the Federal Election Commission, told The New York Times. “He is really bringing to bear the whole weight of the office of president on a business decision. Take another company that is considering whether or not to drop her line — they obviously are going to ask themselves if they want to be attacked by the president.”

In addition to presidential tweets, retailers will need to consider how community members will react. Many Trump supporters have already promised to boycott Nordstrom for ending the Ivanka line. “I think they all have probably been looking closely at Ivanka’s sales numbers and weighing whether they’re worth all the problems she’s brought them,” said Shannon Coulter, who started an online campaign to boycott Trump products, with the hashtag #GrabYourWallet, told the Times. If nothing else, companies will need to rethink their relationship with the Ivanka brand.