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Dolly Parton Caught in MAGA Crosshairs, Nikki Haley Defends the Country Icon’s Silence

Dolly Parton

After losing the 2024 GOP presidential nomination to President Donald Trump, former US ambassador to the United Nations and South Carolina governor Nikki Haley launched the SiriusXM podcast Nikki Haley Live.

According to the satellite radio giant, on the podcast Haley analyzes and simplifies the week’s most significant headlines, including global politics, U.S. policy, and even some music and entertainment.

In addition to hosting her podcast, Haley also joined one of the largest public relations and crisis communications firms, Edelman, as vice chair of its EGA (Edelman Global Advisory) arm, where she advises CEOs.

Haley revealed during a recent interview (see below) that when she counsels CEOs “on how to move forward, how to better their business,” the first thing she tells them is to “take the Dolly Parton approach.”

Haley explained, “Everybody loves Dolly Parton. No one knows what she stands for. No one.”

Haley added, “And in a company, what Americans want, they want a company that treats their consumers right, gives a good product, takes care of their employees, and they don’t care what you think politically at all.”

Haley questions why a CEO would risk issuing a political message when it could antagonize a percentage of one’s customer base. She insisted: “No one cares about your politics.”

[Note: President Trump has repeatedly told Republican voters to boycott “woke companies.” In April 2021, when Major League Baseball moved its All-Star Game out of Georgia (to protest new Georgia voter restrictions), Trump urged a boycott, and wrote on social media: “Boycott Major League Baseball, Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, JPMorgan Chase, ViacomCBS, Citigroup, Cisco, UPS, and Merck.”]

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The Harvard Business Review contradicts Haley’s assessment of American consumers. Its 2020 survey noted: “As society became politically polarized, companies became more activist. With a 24-hour news cycle and social media fanning polarization, it’s more problematic for organizations and their CEOs to remain neutral.”

The HBR report cited Nike featuring former NFL star and social justice advocate Colin Kaepernick in an ad campaign, and Walmart’s response to removing certain weapons from its shelves after a series of tragic mass shootings nationwide, among others.

While it seems like “everybody loves Dolly Parton,” it doesn’t mean the beloved country music icon isn’t affected by politics. On Thursday, Indiana Republicans proposed to cut state funding for Parton’s popular educational program, Imagination Library, which promotes childhood literacy across the country by sending one book a month to kids from birth up to age five.

Note: The Dollywood Foundation launched Imaginary Library in 1995. In 2023, the Indiana state legislature approved $6 million in funding for two years. (Above: The Library of Congress celebrates the 30th anniversary of Parton’s Imaginary Library, which has received numerous awards from the federal institution.)

On Friday, Republican Indiana Governor Mike Braun — who refers to himself as a “Main Street Businessman” — stepped into the controversial state funding cut conversation and announced that his wife, Maureen Braun, would spearhead an initiative to keep Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in Indiana.

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