Satirical Donald Trump picture book gets California couple fired

Brad and Amy Herzog worked as spokespeople for the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association for nearly 17 years. Brad and Amy Herzog worked as spokespeople for the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association for nearly 17 years. Photo: Courtesy Brad And Amy Herzog Photo: Courtesy Brad And Amy Herzog Image 1 of / 13 Caption Close Satirical Donald Trump picture book gets California couple fired 1 / 13 Back to Gallery

Brad and Amy Herzog of Monterey County have spent the past 17 summers rolling around the country promoting the RV lifestyle as spokespeople for the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA).

The parents of two teenage boys have made nearly 300 appearances on local news shows across the United States., sharing the joys and wonders of traveling with a family in a house on wheels. Brad has chronicled their adventures on GoRVing.com ever since 2008, writing over a half-million words.

This summer, the Herzog's annual road trip was cut short when an industry newsletter editor caught hold of the couple's unrelated side project — a satirical picture book playfully poking fun at presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

On June 28, two hours after Amy and Brad posted a Kickstarter campaign to print D is for Dump Trump: An Anti-Hate Alphabet, RV Daily Report founder and editor Greg Gerber published an opinion piece calling for the RVIA to "disavow their affiliation with these authors."

"For an organization that routinely walks the tightrope of political correctness, it seems rather odd that RVIA would turn a blind eye to such a divisive book in this politically-charged environment," Gerber writes.

Twenty four hours later, the RVIA alerted the Herzogs their contract was being terminated.

D is for Dump Trump, with prose by Brad and illustrations by Amy, is described on the Kickstarter page as a "picture book for adults about a man-child. Funny, fearless poems and illustrations about the dangers of Donald Trump, from A to Z."

The spread dedicated to the letter "A" reads:

A is an anti-alphabet about an awful human being, an atrocious candidate we can't believe we're seeing. It's animus and acrimony from appalling Donald Trump, who ignores his better angels when he's on the stump. Mix affluence with arrogance. Throw in anger, too. Stir it up. Antagonize. It's an authoritarian stew.

Brad who has written more than 30 books, including several alphabet-themed ones for kids, says that this title was "our creative expression of the courage of our convictions" and "was completely separate from our lives as traveling ambassadors as promoting RVing to all Americans."

RVIA confirmed with SFGate the suspension of the Herzog's 2016 media tour and said in a statement the decision was "difficult" as they "have been long-time supporters of our industry and the RV lifestyle."

"However, Go RVing, and its principals, RVIA and RVDA, are nonpartisan," the statement goes on. "On both the federal and state level, the RV industry has a long and successful record of building and maintaining positive working relationship on both sides of the aisle on legislative and regulatory issues. As spokespersons for Go RVing, the Herzogs' decision to merchandise a book that does not meet the nonpartisan position of our organizations, distracted from our core values of political neutrality."

Brad said he and Amy have always acted professionally in their jobs as spokespeople.

"In those hundreds of TV interviews and hundreds of thousands of blog words, never have we ever broached any other agenda, political or otherwise, beyond promoting the RV experience and we never would," he said. "We did four TV interviews this summer in Los Angeles, San Diego, Tucson and Phoenix, and the Phoenix one was 15 minutes before we were terminated and there was nothing in those different than we've ever done, which was traveling in a house on wheels."

Despite the Herzog's alleged track record with the RV industry, Gerber implies in his blog post that the couple is using their TV interviews to promote their politics.

Gerber writes:

I can hear it now: "Next up on ABC-15, Brad and Amy Herzog, authors of the wildly popular "D is for Dump Trump: An Anti-Hate Alphabet," who are in studio to talk about the benefits of RVing. Brad, do you think the economy under a Trump administration will allow people to buy and use an RV? Is the RV industry as a whole as 'xenophobic' as Donald Trump? On your book cover, why didn't you show billionaire Donald Trump driving a motorhome off a cliff? Isn't that the direction he wants to take the country and, some say, the world?"

Gerber also accuses the Herzogs of being "California liberals" and "criticizes them for taking "other people's money to publish a book."

The post has instigated an emotional and heated debate between people supporting Gerber's effort to get the Herzogs fired and those who disagree with him.

"I have never met these people but as you note very well above, given the political environment in this country today, there is simply no way that RVIA should be affiliated with them – even if it means losing money by canceling their contract," Bob Zagami writes.

"Here in America, people are allowed to have their own opinions and voice them outside of work," a commenter with the user name Tara Corvo writes. "You and Trump seem to share similar ideas about whether that right should be allowed to continue. Your unsupported accusations caused this family to lose their jobs. At any real reporting organization, making up facts would have the same result for you. We'll all be watching."

While the Herzogs have lost a job they love and that provides their main source of income, some good has come from this all. The Kickstarter that aimed to raise $7,000 had brought in more than $11,955 as of Wednesday afternoon, and still has 28 days to go.

"We're buoyed by the fact that the Kickstarter campaign is doing well," Brad said, "but I don't recommend losing the bulk of your livelihood to boost a Kickstarter campaign."

SFGate reached out to Gerber who chose to not comment.