More than 200,000 people are petitioning NBC to fire Donald Trump over comments about Latinos


When Donald Trump officially launched his presidential bid earlier this month, he didn't have the kindest words for Mexican immigrants, claiming they're "bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists, and some, I assume, are good people."
Last week Spanish-language network Univision cut ties with Trump, refusing to air the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants, which he co-owns. Now, online petitioners are hoping NBC will follow suit.
A Change.org petition signed by more than 210,000 people so far calls on NBC to cancel the pageants, as well as The Apprentice:
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
You are supporting a hateful and narcissistic individual without any kind of values, both personal and business wise. Not only that, but you are supporting a growing trend of bigotry and division in this country... A large part of your audience is Hispanic and we watch NBC, NBC News, and Telemundo. How about looking out for us? [Change.org]
Petition creator Guillermo Castañeda also took issue with Trump's tendency to refer to all Latinos as "Mexicans." His complaint represents a slightly more formal approach to criticizing Trump than the piñata route.
Update 2:21 pm: NBC announced they're cutting ties with Trump due to his "recent derogatory statements" on immigrants, a statement read Monday. The network won't air the Miss USA and Miss Universal pageants, and Trump will not participate in The Apprentice on NBC. They'll continue their relationship with Celebrity Apprentice.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.
-
How China is battling the chikungunya virus
Under The Radar Thousands of cases of the debilitating disease have been found in the country
-
Deep thoughts: AI shows its math chops
Feature Google's Gemini is the first AI system to win gold at the International Mathematical Olympiad
-
Book reviews: 'Face With Tears of Joy: A Natural History of Emoji' and 'Blood Harmony: The Everly Brothers Story'
Feature The surprising history of emojis and the brother duo who changed pop music
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to China
Speed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with Disney
Speed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B deal
Speed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance merger
Speed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profits
Speed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new high
Speed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
-
Economists fear US inflation data less reliable
speed read The Labor Department is collecting less data for its consumer price index due to staffing shortages
-
Crypto firm Coinbase hacked, faces SEC scrutiny
Speed Read The Securities and Exchange Commission has also been investigating whether Coinbase misstated its user numbers in past disclosures