Chipotle distances itself from Bill Ackman after ICE donation sparks boycott calls

Chipotle distanced itself from billionaire hedge funder Bill Ackman after he said he donated $10,000 to a fundraiser for the ICE agent who fatally shot a Minneapolis protester — igniting online calls to boycott the fast-casual Mexican food chain in which his firm was once a major investor.“Bill Ackman is not affiliated with Chipotle,” the company said in a one-sentence statement posted Monday on Threads, an unusual public disavowal that illustrated the sensitivity around Ackman’s political activism and his long, high-profile history as an investor in the burrito giant.The statement came after Ackman’s name surfaced as the top donor to a GoFundMe set up in support of Jonathan Ross, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who killed left-leaning “warrior” Renee Nicole Good last week in Minneapolis.Ackman later confirmed the donation on X, calling the episode “a tragedy” and saying the officer was “doing his best to do his job.”He described Good as “a protester who likely did not intend to kill the officer but whose actions in a split second led to her death.”The donation sparked immediate backlash online, with activists and progressive figures urging consumers — apparently under the misimpression Ackman was the owner or that his hedge fund was still an investor — to boycott the chain.“Don’t eat at Chipotle.The guy who owns it just gave $10000 to the man who killed Renee Good,” a Threads user incorrectly wrote Monday.

“Let’s boycott this restaurant.”Chipotle’s statement on Ackman came in response to that post.X saw a number of similar calls for boycotts from Ackman-hating users.Left-leaning author and activist Shannon Watts blasted the billionaire’s donation as “reward money for shooting a mother of three in the face.”Ackman once loomed large over Chipotle’s boardroom.In September 2016, his hedge fund, Pershing Square Capital Management, disclosed a 9.9% stake in the chain, investing more than $1 billion as Chi...