Use your spending as a ‘weapon’: Scott Galloway’s ‘Resist and Unsubscribe’ movement urges you to abandon Amazon, Apple, and Netflix to oppose Trump

Scott Galloway can identify the exact moment – the final straw that, as he puts it, “broke the camel’s back.” The New York University professor and podcast host recalls watching in horror in January when Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse and U.S. citizen shot and killed by immigration agents, as a “domestic terrorist.”

“I felt it was extremely immoral… and it was very offensive to me,” said Galloway, a marketing professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business. “I was very anxious about it. And one of my favorite sayings is, ‘Action alleviates anxiety.'”

So he got down to business. Driven by his anger at the Trump administration’s immigration policies, he thought about what could catch the president’s attention. Galloway, who co – hosts the Pivot podcast with veteran tech journalist Kara Swisher and regularly talks with top Silicon Valley executives, decided to focus on those Big Tech leaders who are often seen socializing at the White House and Mar a Lago.

What he came up with was a targeted boycott – “a temporary, coordinated reduction in consumer discretionary spending,” as he describes it, and one that aims to cause maximum damage in the industries that seem to have the most influence on Trump administration policy: tech and AI.

, Galloway’s online campaign, doesn’t involve marches or picket lines. Instead, it asks consumers to each make a small, personal sacrifice: Cancel their subscriptions or delete the apps of the ten consumer tech companies he has identified as having “disproportionate influence” over the national economy and President Trump: , , , , Paramount+, , Uber, , OpenAI, and . The site provides links to the “unsubscribe” pages of each company.

In a world where the platforms created by these companies have become so deeply rooted in society and daily life, Galloway is also asking consumers to consider sacrificing convenience for a greater cause. Does one really need to use two ride – hailing apps, he asks, or subscribe to the paid versions of both ChatGPT and Anthropic?

“Just like with Dry January, this is an opportunity to reevaluate or readjust,” he says. “I think this is, at the very least, a chance to cut down on your spending… It’s also about readjusting how you feel about these companies, how they conduct themselves in terms of who they support and why, and whether you really need to spend your money with them.”

He also singled out eight other companies – AT&T, , Charter, Dell, , , Marriot, and UPS – claiming that they assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and is asking consumers to stop doing business with them as well.

Galloway says he has received direct communication from several board members or CEOs of the companies he singled out – with most saying that they understand what he’s doing. But many say they’re stuck dealing with a very unstable situation.

“The president and the administration have done a great job of creating incentives for the most powerful business leaders to go along with his policies, stay quiet if they disagree, and maybe even support them through direct infrastructure support,” Galloway says, referring to companies that work with ICE. “And then they text me and other people I know saying they’re sickened by this – but complaining about him behind his back doesn’t help anyone.”

Galloway says he has sympathy for business leaders who are staying silent despite having concerns about the Trump administration’s actions. Most are afraid to speak out, he says, “because the president will do everything in his power to make that person and that company pay the price.”

His hope is to create a new incentive for these hesitant business leaders by wiping out a quarter – billion dollars or more from their combined market cap. Galloway estimates the financial impact of the movement by looking at the page views of the Resist and Unsubscribe sites and calculating a 5% conversion rate, with each converted visitor canceling an average of two subscriptions, resulting in a monthly revenue loss of $30. A ticker on the site estimates that, on an annualized basis, this amounts to about $248 million divested at the time of publication. (This estimate has not been verified by .)

To be clear, a quarter – billion dollars in combined impact isn’t a major blow to companies worth hundreds of billions – or even trillions. And Galloway is aware that he’s facing an uphill battle, especially in an era when social – media – fueled boycotts and strikes are becoming more and more common. “Since starting this, I’ve become a serious student of economic strikes; most of them don’t work,” Galloway said. “One – day strikes are more for show than effective. They’re more of a nuisance.”

However, there are some examples of successful collective action by consumers. Galloway points to the global economic boycotts of South Africa in the 1980s and early 1990s that pressured the government to end Apartheid, or the more recent after Jimmy Kimmel’s late – night show was suspended following criticism from the Trump administration of the comedian’s comments about Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Jimmy Kimmel Live! was reinstated.

But just because very few boycotts work doesn’t mean they can’t, Galloway says. “What I’m trying to do is send a message that you have more power than you think, and you have a weapon right in front of you, and that is your spending,” he said.

So far, Galloway says he believes his movement is a “moderate to tangible success.” “What I’ve heard from these companies is that [Resist and Unsubscribe] is a topic of discussion in product management meetings and in the cafeteria, but it’s not yet a topic at the board level,” he said. “So the reality is I still have some work to do to create enough of a signal, enough awareness, enough cancellations, so that the CEOs and boards of these companies feel that the incentives have changed.”

For now, he points out, it’s still growing. “My mom used to say, ‘How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time,'” Galloway said. “So I wouldn’t be cynical or discouraged thinking you can’t make an impact. I think together, we can all have a huge impact.”

He compares this moment in history to the U.S. Civil War, the World Wars, or the Civil Rights movement – real turning points. And he wants to have a clear answer if he’s ever asked, “What did you do in the war?”

“It just feels good to be taking action,” he says. “It feels really good to be doing something with others.”