Under Armour’s CEO said a nice thing about Trump, and now he’s walking it way back
Under Armour founder and CEO Kevin Plank has had a challenging few weeks.
At the end of January, the company’s stock dipped after it reported disappointing earnings for the fourth quarter of 2016. Under Armour’s earnings per share were lower than anticipated, and the company booked about $100 million less than projected.
About a week after that, Plank went on CNBC and said Trump would be a “real asset” for the United States, hailing him as a pro-business president. It’s the kind of confident economic talk that, whether it’s true or not, makes good sense for the chief executive of a massive company that’s just gotten bleak financial news.
“I’m a big fan of people that operate in the world of ‘publish and iterate’ versus ‘think, think, think, think, think,'” Plank said then. “So there’s a lot that I respect there.”
Twitter lit up quickly with criticism of Plank, who’d aligned himself with a polarizing, historically unpopular new president. Under Armour issued a statement by the end of the day that talked up the importance of diversity and noted, “We engage in policy, not politics.” It was immediately clear Plank would have to do damage control.
Some of Plank’s star athletes voiced their disagreement quickly. Stephen Curry said Trump was…
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