Who is Bernie Marcus? How billionaire Home Depot founder's statement triggered 'unfair' boycott of mega chain
As the presidential elections get closer, more eminent personalities are coming out in the open to support their preferred candidate. One such personality is the 91-year-old billionaire Bernie Marcus, the co-founder of The Home Depot, the largest home improvement retailer in the US. In an opinion piece, titled 'Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus: Trump deserves a second term and has my vote. Here's why', published on FoxNews.com, Marcus supported the reelection of Trump triggering an online protest on Twitter to boycott Home Depot under the hashtag #BoycottHomeDepot.
Talk show host and Democratic strategist Chip Franklin, kick-starting the movement, tweeted, "The co-founder of Home Depot, Bernie Marcus, thinks Trump deserves a second term. Who else is ready to boycott Home Depot? #BoycottHomeDepot"
The co-founder of Home Depot, Bernie Marcus, thinks Trump deserves a second term.
— Chip Franklin (@chipfranklin) October 30, 2020
Who else is ready to boycott Home Depot?#BoycottHomeDepot
Marcus initially announced he was supporting Trump in 2016 and donated millions to his first campaign. He called the president "truly Ronald Reagan's heir" while praising "his leadership, charisma, and policy agenda" in the Fox News opinion piece. Defending the president against those who criticize his covid-19 response, Marcus wrote, "Trump deserves a second term not despite his COVID-19 response, but because of it. While Democrats try to blame Trump for the roughly 220,000 disease victims, far more would have perished if Joe Biden were in office."
Who is Bernie Marcus?
Born in 1929, Marcus co-founded Home Depot in 1979. He was the company's first CEO and was the chairman until retiring in 2002. He co-founded Home Depot alongside Arthur Blank after being fired during a corporate power struggle at retail chain company Handy Dan which went out of business in 1989, ten years after Home Depot was founded. After the company's success, Marcus – an inductee of the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame – ended up being a billionaire and is currently worth a whopping $6.2 billion. In a June 2019 interview, Marcus said most of his wealth is in Home Depot stock.
A lifelong conservative, Marcus, in 2015, donated $1.5 million to Super PACs supporting Jeb Bush and Scott Walker. Before the current call for boycott, back in 2019, when Marcus announced that he would financially support Donald Trump's 2020 presidential campaign, similar boycott calls of Home Depot were made even though Marcus is no longer with the company. During Trump's 2016 campaign, Marcus was one of the largest donors, giving $7 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Marcus has been married twice, first to Ruth Rados, and then to Billi Marcus. He has two children, Frederick Marcus and Susanne Marcus Collins, with his first wife, and a stepson, Michael Morris, with his second wife.
Home Depot responded to the controversy saying, "Bernie retired from The Home Depot about 20 years ago and does not speak on behalf of the company. The Home Depot does not give money to presidential campaigns or endorse presidential candidates." Other co-founder Blank, who is also retired, has primarily donated to Democratic candidates, including Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, with no contributions going to Republicans in 2020.