March 19th, Donald Trump Jr. sent an email through the company that runs his father’s email list, Campaign Core, announcing “a BIG breakthrough in the culture war.” That culture war, Trump wrote, is “reaching corporate America.” He added that Conservatives have a “new” tool to fight “woke” workplaces: the “free to work” RedBalloon job board. As an incentive to create an account on the website, Trump offered 20 autographed copies of his latest book, motivated.
“Big job boards like Indeed and ZipRecruiter are actually promoting ‘wake up’ policies in the workplace,” Trump said in a promotional video posted on the right-wing video streaming site Rumble. “They are a big part of the problem.” Exactly what’s the problem, or what’s the word “woke up” it is supposed to represent something more than a conservative shibboleth, it is not clear.
Standing next to the eldest son of the recently impeached former president in the RedBalloon advertisement is the company unfortunately named founder, Andrew Crapuchettes. RedBalloon’s origin story dates back to 2021, when Crapuchettes claims that he was fired from his position as CEO at his former company, EMSI, for being “too conservative and christian.”
RedBalloon is explicitly “anti-awakening“‘s” positioning fits within a broader conservative push in recent years to create a “shadow economy” apart from progressive values. the idea has been promoted by junior trump and far-right pundits like charlie kirk from Turning Points USA. And while a parallel ecosystem of right-wing media has gained some traction, other anti-wake projects have not fared as well. Consider the Peter Theil-funded bank that faced self-cancellation, or the fact that Twitter’s right-wing alternative, Parler, has been reduced to about 20 employees. As NBC News reported Last month, conservative tech founders at the most recent Conservative Political Action Conference “said they believed that some companies that were part of the ‘shadow economy’ movement were ahead of their aspirations.”
‘An unapologetic conservative Christian’
The particular nature of the Crapuchettes’ Christian faith is something to give fans of separation of church and state pause for thought. In November 2021, He guardian reported Crapuchettes as elder of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho—a church led by a man who has “openly expressed an ambition to create a ‘theocracy’ in America”.
“When I was running the company, I believed that everyone should work with their whole selves,” Crapuchettes says when asked about his faith. “And as an unapologetic conservative Christian, that means when we have our annual Christmas dinner, I’m going to pray over the food.”
Regarding Crapuchettes’ role as elder of a church that promotes Christian theocracy, he says he “never brought it up” as a conflict on the part of his previous board of directors.
“Was it a fundamental problem? I have no idea,” says Crapuchettes.
Crapuchettes says the problems with his former employer began when he and EMSI’s board of directors clashed over various social issues. “Covid-BLM-George Floyd social change happened,” says Crapuchettes. “We came to a head on a number of things, and they ended up selling the business.”