Former U.S. President Donald Trump resigned from SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) after the organization's national board recently voted overwhelmingly to find probable cause of Trump's violation of the group's constitution, a press release noted.
The board acted on charges initiated by National Executive Director David White at the request of President Gabrielle Carteris. The charges specifically cite Trump's role in inciting the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, and in sustaining a reckless campaign of misinformation aimed at discrediting and ultimately threatening the safety of journalists, many of whom are SAG-AFTRA members.
The charges requested the imposition of the most severe penalty available to SAG-AFTRA: expulsion from membership.
In his letter to Carteris, Trump stated, in part, "I write to you today regarding the so-called Disciplinary Committee hearing aimed at revoking my union membership. Who cares!
"While I'm not familiar with your work, I'm very proud of my work on movies such as Home Alone 2, Zoolander and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps; and television shows including The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Saturday Night Live and, of course, one of the most successful shows in television history, The Apprenticeto name just a few!"
Trump went on to characterize SAG-AFTRA's action as a "blatant attempt at free media attention to distract from your dismal record as a union."
On Feb. 4, SAG-AFTRA released the following statement regarding Trump's resignation from the union: "Thank you."
UPDATE: On Feb. 6, the SAG-AFTRA National Board, meeting via Zoom videoconference, passed a resolution preemptively denying any potential re-admission applications by Trump.