Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone Says He’s Boycotting Sam Adams

He's upset with Boston Beer CEO Jim Koch, who thanked Trump for cutting his taxes.

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Sam Adams’s Jim Koch / Courtesy photo | Mayor Curtatone at the Micro Museum by KAdam on Flickr/Creative Commons

Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone is swearing off Sam Adams, a boycott he says comes after the maker of the iconic Boston lager met with President Trump last week.

“I will never drink Sam Adams again!” Curtatone proclaimed on Twitter on Sunday, linking to a story in the Boston Business Journal that reported that Jim Koch, Boston Beer CEO, was among 13 corporate executives who dined with Trump at his New Jersey golf course, and that the beer magnate thanked him for cutting his company’s taxes. Koch, according to a White House transcript, said lower taxes would help Boston Beer beat competitors overseas. “I mean, Americans — I’m the largest American-owned brewery at 2 percent market share… and competing against people who were paying 20,” he reportedly said. “We were paying 38 percent taxes now we have a level playing field, and we’re going to kick their ass.”

Sunday night, Curtatone fired off a series of tweets criticizing the CEO. “We need to hold these complicit profiteers of Trump’s white nationalist agenda accountable !” he wrote, adding, “Hey Jim Koch! While you were thanking Trump for your tax break, did you happen to express any concern for the families separated under his cruel and inhumane immigration enforcement policy?”

Local Trump critics have been quick to lash out at local brands that praise the president. L.L. Bean, the famous Maine outerwear store, found itself on an influential boycott list after it was revealed that a board member was a deep-pocketed donor of a pro-Trump super PAC (amid backlash, the company insisted the views of one person don’t reflect that of the company, and CEO Steven Smith has since spoken out against Trump’s travel ban). New Balance came under fire—literally—shortly after the election in 2016 when the Boston-based shoe company’s vice president sounded an optimistic note about then-president-elect Trump (the company later insisted it wasn’t partisan, and later had the misfortune of having to reject a Trump-fueled endorsement from neo-Nazis).

We need to hold these complicit profiteers of Trump’s white nationalist agenda accountable ! https://t.co/UCywb9I7xE

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