‘Not happening’: Truckers backtrack on NYC boycott as protest over Trump trial judgment fizzles out
US truckers have now started reacting as demands for the boycott gained traction on social media. One of the truckers has said there's no strike against NYC.
While ex-US President Donald Trump continues to brag about a truckers New York City boycott in protest of his $355 million fraud trial judgment, several drivers seem to have taken a U-turn with many claiming that the strike “is not happening”.
Following the ruling in Trump's civil fraud case, several pro-Trump social media users started appealing to truck drivers to refuse shipment to New York City in order to possibly disrupt its economy.
Truckers have now started reacting as demands for the boycott gained traction on social media. Even Wisconsin trucker Chicago Ray, who launched the calls for boycott, backed off the action on Monday.
“Just to be clear. I'm no figurehead of any movement. I'm not leading, nor have I encouraged, or am I encouraging anyone to do anything other than what they were doing prior to the ruling Friday in New York City,” he wrote on X.
“I'm just a trucker who heard chatter and posted it on Twitter, nothing more than that,” he added in a now deleted post.
Also Read: NYC faces complete shutdown as truckers threaten to paralyse state, ‘New Yorkers must stock up’
Truckers says people refusing to enter NYC due to other issues
Another trucker with TikTok handle ‘bluecollar_trucker’ suggested that there might be further problems with parking, crime, and traffic that contribute to the growing trend of truckers choosing not to visit New York City.
"This trucker strike, nobody's talked to me about it and I know a lot of other guys on other platforms like, 'Yeah, no, we've never talked about it either.' So one it's not happening, there's no strike against New York City — not over the Trump case, but more and more people are refusing to go because of other issues," the trucker said in a video.
Samuraiblaq2.0, another TikTokuser and trucker, reaffirmed that the boycott is not happening, adding that truckers are not going to NYC because they have been facing several legal issues.
"The main reason why most truckers are not going to New York City is because of the f****** laws that are put in place, especially now the fact that we got to pay tolls within the city."
Also Read: #TruckersForTrump trend gets bigger, will protesters make boycott national and go beyond NYC?
How the boycott story kicked off?
It was Chicago Ray who started the boycott story by sharing a video on Friday. where he stated, “[Truckers] gonna start refusing loads in New York City starting on Monday... We're tired of you f**king with Trump, OK?”
“Our bosses ain't going to care if we deny the loads. We'll just go somewhere else, all right? You know how f**king hard it is to get into New York City," he continued.
Trump himself shared the video of popular trucking personality on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Ray, however, deleted the same video on Tuesday, but stated he continues to refuse shipments to NYC.
"Drivers can make their own decisions based on their families and their careers," he wrote in a another statement. “I worked for a place for 18 years and I quit them in one day and had this job b4 I got to my car.... i ain't the leader of any movement... I'm my own man period.”
