Big corporations don’t get into open political warfare. Scoring woke points now and then ? Yes. But taking sides in such a divisive battle is a No No. Nothing to be gained and plenty to lose. I was surprised to see Marriott and Citi get into this. Do they not know 75 million people voted for Trump ? Likely much more. The only explanation like you said is threats. Retribution if they don’t obey.
That's the way I see it. Can't be anything else. NO business throws away half of its customers unless some mafioso threatens them.
Another thing is for all their huge advertising budgets, big corporations often misread public sentiment. Gillette learned that the hard way. They think it’s now universally accepted that Trump instigated the so called riots because the media is wall to wall with it, and the woke thing to do is punish Trump by denying his campaign financial services. These dumbasses will learn once people start boycotting.
“””I was surprised to see Marriott and Citi get into this. Do they not know 75 million people voted for Trump ?”””
But how many of these 75 million stay at a Marriot? Marriot is relying upon the corporate traveler for their principal source of revenue.