Scott Galloway, the outspoken marketing professor from New York University’s Stern School of Business, has never been shy about his views on power, technology, and politics. But this week, he’s taken his activism to a new level, launching a nationwide campaign he calls “Resist and Unsubscribe”—an economic strike aimed directly at the heart of what he calls President Donald Trump’s true base: Big Tech’s bottom line. The campaign, announced on February 12, 2026, has already set off ripples across Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C., as Galloway’s message gains traction among Americans frustrated with the current administration’s policies.
During a recent episode of The Daily Beast Podcast, Galloway laid out his reasoning with characteristic bluntness. “The only time the Trump administration walks back his actions is when the markets fall,” he told listeners, according to The Daily Beast. In Galloway’s view, the companies with the greatest sway over the markets—and, by extension, over Trump himself—are the tech giants: Amazon, Apple, Meta, OpenAI, and X, among others. These firms, he argues, have an outsized influence not only on the national economy but also on the president’s decision-making.
“This is a coin-operated president,” Galloway explained to podcast host Hugh Dougherty. “And these individuals have decided that their one and only job is shareholder value. And I empathize with that, I get it. There’s a ton of pressure; nobody wants to go first. But there needs to be collective action from 10, 50, a hundred, or the Fortune 500 to say, ‘This has just gone too far.’ But what is it about? It’s about one thing. It’s about shareholder value—full stop.”
Galloway’s campaign isn’t just about sending a message; it’s about hitting companies where it hurts: subscriber growth. “These companies are highly sensitive to growth rates and projected growth rates,” he said. “The easiest way to maybe save some money and have a really big impact and send a message to the markets, to Trump, and to other citizens that they can have an impact is to resist and unsubscribe.” According to Raw Story, Galloway believes that if enough Americans cancel their subscriptions to these tech services, the resulting dip in growth metrics could force CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, and Tim Cook to reconsider their public support for Trump and his administration’s most controversial policies.
The campaign comes in the wake of a particularly fraught moment for the Trump administration. In Minneapolis, hardline immigration operations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) resulted in the deaths of two U.S. citizens—a tragedy that sparked outrage and galvanized calls for action. Galloway’s campaign specifically calls out not only the tech giants but also what he terms “Blast Zone” companies: service providers such as AT&T, FedEx, and Comcast, which hold contracts with ICE and, in his words, “directly enable” the agency’s activities.
“If you want to protest, more power to you. If you want to register people to vote, I salute you,” Galloway said on the podcast, as reported by The Daily Beast. “But the easiest way to maybe save some money and have a really big impact and send a message to the markets, to Trump and to other citizens that they can have an impact is to resist and unsubscribe.”
He’s not just hoping for a symbolic gesture. Galloway argues that even a modest reduction in GDP—say, one or two percentage points—caused by mass subscription cancellations could have a dramatic effect. “So I think if you can just take GDP down one or two points, or if Sam Altman or Andy Jassy or Tim Cook says, ‘This unsubscribe thing is getting a little bit uncomfortable for us and our shareholders,’ I think they’re going to find their backbone and maybe not show up for as many Melania premieres or decide that maybe we shouldn’t be as supportive of ICE as we have been, or maybe we’re gonna be a little bit more courageous with our views,” he said, according to The Daily Beast.
Galloway’s analysis is rooted in recent history. He pointed to last year’s controversy involving comedian Jimmy Kimmel, whose late-night show was suspended after comments about the shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The public backlash was swift: cancellations of Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions doubled, and within a week, Kimmel was back on the air. Disney later admitted it had suspended the show “to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country.” For Galloway, this episode is proof that consumer action can move the needle—even for the most powerful corporations.
But what does he want from the tech titans? “I want them to show some fidelity to the American values that made them so wealthy and built such great companies,” Galloway said. He’s calling for more than just a temporary distancing from the administration; he wants tech leaders to take a public stand against policies and practices that, in his view, undermine those values.
Of course, not everyone agrees with Galloway’s approach—or his assessment of the president’s relationship with Big Tech. The White House responded to his campaign with a statement defending its close ties to industry leaders. “Industry leaders frequently reach out to the President because they know they have a pro-business and pro-growth ally in the White House, and the Trump administration will continue to unleash robust private sector-led economic growth for the American people,” said White House spokesperson Kush Desai. Desai also emphasized that “Americans overwhelmingly rejected cancel culture when they re-elected President Trump with an Election Day mandate.”
Galloway, for his part, insists that the movement isn’t about cancel culture but about leveraging economic power for political accountability. “I think you have to hit them where they feel it. And that’s in terms of shareholder value and a decline in subscriber growth,” he said. In other words, if the boardrooms of Silicon Valley start to feel the pinch, Galloway believes, they’ll be more likely to challenge the administration’s most contentious policies—whether it’s support for ICE or participation in high-profile White House events.
The campaign’s website offers a practical guide for would-be participants, listing the ten targeted tech companies and the “Blast Zone” service providers. Galloway’s message is clear: collective action, even something as simple as canceling a subscription, can send a powerful signal not just to corporate America but to the halls of power in Washington.
As the “Resist and Unsubscribe” campaign gathers steam, all eyes are on the response from both consumers and the C-suite. Will Americans embrace Galloway’s call to economic arms? And will tech leaders, faced with the prospect of declining subscriber numbers and mounting public pressure, finally take a stand? The next few weeks could offer a telling glimpse into the shifting balance of power between Main Street, Silicon Valley, and Pennsylvania Avenue.