Is Trump Right About Bud Light?

"The Bud Light ad was a mistake of epic proportions," Donald Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday, but "Anheuser-Busch is a Great American Brand that perhaps deserves a Second Chance."

"Anheuser-Busch spends $700 Million a year with our GREAT Farmers, employ 65 thousand Americans, of which 1,500 are Veterans, and is a Founding Corporate Partner of Folds of Honor, which provides Scholarships for families of fallen Servicemen & Women, Trump continued. "They’ve raised over $30,000,000 and given 44,000 Scholarships."

All that is true and terrific. Is it enough?

Before we get to that, Trump's corporate musing also left him open to headlines like these examples from the usual lefty suspects:

Trump, on eve of fundraiser with Anheuser-Busch lobbyist, defends company, Politico

Trump, Anheuser-Busch Stock Owner, Wants to Give Bud Light Another Chance, Daily Beast

Trump Defends Bud Light Ahead of Fundraiser with Anheuser-Busch Lobbyist, Mediate

You'd be hard-pressed to find a major investor who didn't own some AB-InBev shares or a fundraiser who wasn't also a lobbyist for some big firm — but too many "readers" don't read past the headlines. On the other hand, the more traditional news outlets like NBC and CNN have, so far, left the story alone.

They were probably embarrassed by just how successful the Bud Light boycott turned out to be and would like nothing better than for the story to go away.

Trump's self-inflicted damage done? Zero, zilch, nada. Trump has talked himself into (and back out of) trouble before, but this is not one of those times. I had to mention the lefty competition's headlines just to dismiss them.

My RedState colleague Brandon Morse noted this week that Bud Light has "risen to assist first responders and their families, military families, and even farmers" and even "chopped the figurative heads off of those responsible for its disastrous ad featuring the transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney."

"If that's not Bud Light doing an about-face and marching to the beat of America's drum," Brandon wrote, "I don't know what else is... This is A-B saying that it's learned its lesson and will now make Bud Light the all-American beer it was supposed to be from the beginning."

Compare all that to Bud Light's first attempt at a non-apology apology, with last summer's "easy to enjoy" misfire.

Crack a cold one: we've got an epic summer ahead. Sock tans included. pic.twitter.com/CGRCvkHC60
— Bud Light (@budlight) June 22, 2023

If Bud Light was "on a mission to sort of surreptitiously apologize to customers they offended," I wrote back then, an ad gently making fun of their customers instead of themselves was hardly the way to do it.

I don't have a dog in this fight since I probably haven't had a Bud Light since it was the Free Beer of Choice at all those fraternity and sorority parties I crashed at Mizzou back in the late '80s — and I'm not going to suddenly start drinking beer I don't like even if they're doing great things for first responders.

But I'm not the target audience for Bud Light's re-direction back to its roots, either.

So what do you think? Has Bud Light made the right moves to win back conservatives?

Did the boycott work? Are we tired of all the winning? Is it time to forgive, forget, and crack open an ice-cold Bud Light?