He has a legit beef with Goodyear but his knee-jerk call for a boycott this morning was the latest of many examples of Trump reacting to something more like a Fox News viewer than as the president. In particular, a president who has to face voters in less than 90 days.

Does he really want to antagonize Ohio voters at a moment when their state is very much in play?

I wonder if Kamala Harris’s acceptance speech tonight is being hastily rewritten to include a few lines about Mr. Populism, the hero of the Rust Belt, leading a boycott of an Ohio-based American company with lots of foreign competitors. Until then, locals are letting him have it:

Rep. Tim Ryan, the Democratic congressman who represents the Akron area, said the tweet was a “holy sh*t” moment in a presidency that’s already been full of them. Ryan told The Daily Beast his immediate reaction was “a little bit shocked at the level of stupidity” on the part of the president. “This is an iconic American company in a swing state… it’s really, really dumb politically. But it shows the problem that he has—that it’s more about him than it is about other people.”

“He’s directly saying,” said Ryan, “he wants to put you out of a job.”…

The Trump tweet briefly left Steve Millard, president and CEO of the Greater Akron Chamber at a loss for words. While he wasn’t familiar with what the company had done to enrage the president, he made clear “there are probably far more important things for him to be thinking about than whether or not Goodyear is letting people wear his hats.”

Everyone’s lining up to get their whacks in:

Keep in mind, this is a President who spent years making his own Trump-branded products overseas.

He failed to stand up for workers in Lordstown, and now he betrays the workers in Akron.

— Sherrod Brown (@SenSherrodBrown) August 19, 2020

The President’s calls for a boycott of Goodyear, a century-old Akron-based company that employs thousands of hardworking men and women, are shameful and unbecoming of the office of the President.

In Northeast Ohio, we support our workers.

— Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (@RepMarciaFudge) August 19, 2020

Goodyear has believed in this community for generations, investing in the power, tenacity and honest people of the heartland, which is more than we can say for this president. #WeStandWithGoodyear pic.twitter.com/0bM8Xax018

— City of Akron, Ohio (@AkronOhioMayor) August 19, 2020

First, you came to destroy American decency. Next, you came to destroy American institutions. Now you're coming to destroy the American economy and heartland jobs. Luckily you seem to fail at everything you do. pic.twitter.com/zzVJ9X0ap4

— City of Akron, Ohio (@AkronOhioMayor) August 19, 2020

“He spends a tremendous amount of his time in the White House focused on how things reflect on him personally when he should be thinking about how they impact American families,” said Biden’s deputy campaign manager. A key wrinkle of boycotting Goodyear is that “Chinese tire imports to the United States have been rising by double-digits, with China the top importer, followed by Thailand, Canada and South Korea.” Should we buy Chinese instead? Buy French, with Michelin? We could buy Dunlop, I suppose — but Dunlop is owned by Goodyear. How’s this boycott supposed to work?

This isn’t the only boycott of an American company President Fox Viewer has called for either:

On Wednesday, Goodyear joined a long list of corporations whose products the president has said should be shunned at one point or another. The list — which stretches even longer if you include companies targeted over the course of his campaign — is a who’s who of the American way of life, ranging from Apple Inc., AT&T Inc., Harley-Davidson Inc., Macy’s Inc. and Oreo-maker Mondelez International Inc. He’s also threatened to cancel an order for a new Air Force One jet from Boeing Co. and yank unspecified subsidies for General Motors Co. The reasons for the boycotts range from disagreements over operating decisions such as factory relocations or product selection; a means of pressure for jobs initiatives; leverage for government contract negotiations; and just general dislike. He’s never cared very much if the issues that are the grist for his corporate attacks conflict with or are the result of some of his own policies, nor has he been particularly focused on achieving more than a publicity stunt in most instances.

But Goodyear is an especially curious target. The company’s biggest competitors are foreign companies such as Japan’s Bridgestone Corp., Germany’s Continental AG and France’s Michelin.

It’ll be political malpractice if Dems don’t leverage this somehow at the convention, while they enjoy a national spotlight. Kayleigh McEnany at least made a valiant effort to clean up the mess at this afternoon’s briefing by attributing Trump’s annoyance at Goodyear to its apparent hostility to police. “As far as I’m concerned, Blue Lives Matter is an equity issue. There have been police officers across the country that have been targeted because they wear the badge,” she said. “The reason he called for the boycott was over MAGA. MAGA is pretty much unanimous with Blue Lives Matter these days, if you’ve seen the endorsements.” That doesn’t undo the damage from the boycott demand, but it does at least place it on a firmer political footing, supposedly driven by Trump’s sympathy for cops more so than anger at the disrespect showed to him personally.

Here’s Sherrod Brown, one of the left’s more prominent populists, racing to CNN to take this lay-up. Exit question: How do Democrats like AOC and Julian Castro, who suggested boycotting Goya because its CEO supports Trump, feel about today’s call to boycott Trump?

The President's boycott of Goodyear proves that he simply doesn't care about the workers in Akron –

just like he didn't care about the workers he betrayed in Lordstown. pic.twitter.com/sf2QO2XC09

— Sherrod Brown (@SenSherrodBrown) August 19, 2020

Update: And here he is doubling down, saying he wouldn’t recommend buying from Goodyear if they don’t back off on MAGA and Blue Lives Matter.

Asked about his call for a Goodyear boycott, Trump says, "you know what? [Workers who lose their jobs] will be able to get a good job." (The unemployment rate is currently over 10 percent.) pic.twitter.com/j6vJBplQup

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 19, 2020