Moms Are Boycotting a Trump-Supporting Baby Sleep Expert

Over the last 24 hours, the progressive parents of Facebook and Instagram have launched an informal campaign to boycott a popular baby sleep consultant over her donations to the Trump campaign, a fitting round of niche protest that gained steam as the real estate developer boarded a plane and flew from the White House to Mar-a-Lago for the last time.

Cara Dumaplin—better known by her business’ name, Taking Cara Babies—quit her job as a pre-natal nurse in the mid-2010s and has since developed a tidy business offering e-books, classes, and phone consultations to mothers struggling to get their newborns to sleep through the night. As a major voice in the lucrative business of helping harried parents deal with the stresses of raising small children, she’s been featured on Good Morning America; 1.2 million people follow her on Instagram, where she posts inspirational content and short videos of tips for “conquering quarantine naps” in a carefully muted color scheme.

Her expertise is bolstered by her own medical training and, as she is often quick to point out, her husband’s position as a pediatrician. Online classes can range from $179 to $319; for a 40-minute phone consultation, new parents can expect to pay $75.

Though it’s unclear who first decided to do a quick Federal Elections Commission search for Dumaplin’s name, popular online parenting figures like Cradle Company founder Brandi Jordan and the blogger Jamie Grayson have recently amplified screenshots of Dumaplin’s donations to the Trump campaign and its various political action committees. Since 2019 the influencer and her pediatrician husband have donated nearly $2,000 towards the ex-president’s reelection. As Jordan wrote on Facebook, Dumaplin’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Instagram posts featuring a Black baby felt to her like using “’multicultural’ marketing to cover your obvious support of a racist.” Or, as Grayson put it rather punchily: “You cannot take cara babies if the person you’re supporting puts them in cages.”

In a Reddit thread, several women claim to have emailed the company asking for a refund and lodging their formal complaints with Taking Cara Babies’ politics.