Photo: AP

On Wednesday, the CEO of food delivery site Grubhub sent out a company-wide email condemning the “nationalist, anti-immigrant and hateful” beliefs of President-elect Donald Trump and encouraging any employees who disagreed to quit.




“I absolutely reject the nationalist, anti-immigrant and hateful politics of Donald Trump and will work to shield our community from this movement as best as I can,” wrote Matt Maloney, who co-founded the company. “If you do not agree with this statement then please reply to this email with your resignation because you have no place here. We do not tolerate hateful attitudes on our team.”

In the same email, Maloney said that Trump’s practice of “demeaning, insulting, and ridiculing minorities, immigrants, and the physically/mentally disabled” would have led to his immediate termination if he had worked at Grubhub.


“I want to be clear that this behavior—and these views, have no place at Grubhub,” wrote Maloney. “We have worked for years cultivating a culture of support and inclusiveness. I firmly believe that we must bring together different perspectives to continue innovating—including all genders, races, ethnicities and sexual, cultural or idealogical preferences.”

After backlash to the email exploded online on Thursday, Maloney issued a followup statement claiming that his message of tolerance had been misunderstood and that he had never asked Trump voters to resign. From Grubhub:

Some of the statements in my email (please see full text below) have been misconstrued. I want to clarify that I did not ask for anyone to resign if they voted for Trump. I would never make such a demand. To the contrary, the message of the email is that we do not tolerate discriminatory activity or hateful commentary in the workplace, and that we will stand up for our employees. Grubhub welcomes and accepts employees with all political beliefs, no matter who they voted for in this or any election. We do not discriminate on the basis of someone’s principles, or political or other beliefs. I deeply respect the right of all citizens to vote for the candidate of their choice. In fact, I offered extra flexibility on Tuesday and encouraged all our employees to go vote. There is a place for all points of view at Grubhub. We value diverse perspectives and believe those perspectives help to create a better product and a better workplace culture.

Maloney’s critics, however, did not appear to be terribly convinced by the “clarification” and continued to promote the #boycottgrubhub hashtag on social media.

“Hi @Grubhub I’m a Trump supporter & use(d) your service A LOT, but no longer will,” wrote Tammy Bruce, a Fox News contributor, on Twitter. “I’m sure many of my 100K+ followers feel the same.”


[Fox News]