'Pray for 45': How Franklin Graham Is Striking Back at Walmart Anti-Trump Clothing Line
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association unveiled a "Pray for 45" t-shirt on their website earlier this week.
The 100 percent cotton, sports team style shirt includes the Bible reference , which encourages the believer to pray for “all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.”
The website describes the shirt as a visible “reminder to lift up our president in prayer.”
Evangelist Franklin Graham launched the shirt and its new message after Walmart came under fire for selling "Impeach 45" shirts, baby clothes and other items on their website.
Despite the fact that Walmart also sells pro-Trump items, such as Make America Great Again caps, Fortune Magazine says the megastore received massive backlash from patrons who were threatening to boycott.
The hashtag #BoycottWalmart was trending on Twitter after a conservative commentator tweeted his unfortunate discovery.
.@walmart why are you selling Impeach 45 baby clothes on your website?????
What kind of message are you trying to send? —" style="text-decoration:underline;color:#5F9EA0;cursor:pointer" class="external-link" target="_blank">https://t.co/PwI4nCVAZx— Ryan Fournier (@RyanAFournier) July 3, 2018
The outcry prompted this statement from the retailer: “These items were sold by third-party sellers on our open marketplace and were not offered directly by Walmart. We’re removing these types of items pending review of our marketplace policies.”
But this isn’t the first time Walmart has been on the receiving end of bad PR due to items on their website.
In 2017, the juggernaut came under fire for selling shirts through Teespring, which threatened violence against journalists.
The shirt, which was removed from the site, said “Rope. Tree. Journalist. SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED.”
A Walmart representative told Fortune that once they received word of this disturbing product, they pulled it and “kicked off a human sweep of the site to find and remove any similar content.”
