Target made “emergency” calls last week to managers and senior directors at the store after the company faced backlash for its Pride collection, which included “tuck-friendly” female swimwear and other products, according to a source inside the company. 

The calls were to direct some stores to make their Pride products display less prominent in order to avoid a “Bud Light situation,” a Target insider told Fox News. 

“We were given 36 hours, told to take all of our Pride stuff, the entire section, and move it into a section that’s a third the size. From the front of the store to the back of the store, you can’t have anything on mannequins and no large signage,” the insider reportedly said. 

“We call our customers ‘guests,’ there is outrage on their part. This year, it is just exponentially more than any other year,” the source added. “I think given the current situation with Bud Light, the company is terrified of a Bud Light situation.”

Bud Light has seen plummeting sales in the wake of a partnership with transgender-identifying activist and influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Target faced criticism last week after social media users pointed out that the store offered “tuck-friendly” and “extra crotch coverage” female swimsuits for sale.

A spokesperson for Target has said that these swimsuits were only for adults, and not children. Other products in the Target Pride collection include small shirts with phrases like “Just Be You And Feel The Love,” Pride-themed onesies, as well as rainbow-colored leggings, tutu skirts, and jumpers. 

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The calls on Friday focused on team safety and giving instructions on making some of the Pride products less prominent in the store.

“The call was super quick, it was 15 minutes. The first 10 minutes was about how to keep your team safe and not having to advocate for Target. The last five was, ‘Move this to the back, take down the mannequins and remove the signage,’” the source told Fox. 

In response to the controversy, Target announced that it has also removed some products from its stores, which reportedly include a sweater that read “cure transphobia not trans people” and a “too queer for here” tote bag. 

“Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and well-being while at work,” Target said on Tuesday. ”Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.”

Former President Donald Trump responded on Tuesday to E. Jean Carroll’s move this week asking a federal judge to amend her defamation lawsuit against the former president by asking for an additional $10 million because of comments that he made about her during a CNN town hall event.

“I don’t know E. Jean Carroll, I never met her or touched her (except on a celebrity line with her African American husband who she disgustingly called the ‘Ape,’), I wouldn’t want to know or touch her, I never abused her or raped her or took her to a dressing room 25 years ago in a crowded department store where the doors are LOCKED, she has no idea when, or did anything else to her, except deny her Fake, Made Up Story, that she wrote in a book,” Trump posted on social media. “IT NEVER HAPPENED, IS A TOTAL SCAM, UNFAIR TRIAL!”

“The Carroll case is part of the Democrats playbook to tarnish my name and person, much like the now fully debunked Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, the 51 Intelligence Agents, FBI/Twitter Files, and so much more,” he continued. “It is being funded and tried by Democrat operatives, although this was denied by them, and when they got caught in the lie, the Clinton appointed judge would not let us use it in trial. Time will prove him to be highly partisan & very unfair. Where’s the dress she said she had?”

A federal jury in New York found Trump liable on May 9 of committing battery against Carroll and later defaming her when he vociferously denied her claim that he raped her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s. The defamation lawsuit involved Trump’s comments from a Truth Social post in October 2022, referring to Carroll’s allegations as a “complete con job” and saying that she “is not my type.”

Nine members of a civil trial jury ordered Trump to pay $5 million to Carroll in damages — taking just two and half hours of deliberation to reach the unanimous verdict — two weeks ago.

Attorneys representing Carroll, 79, proposed amendments on Monday to the first of her two defamation lawsuits against Trump, which would hold the former president liable for remarks made at a CNN broadcast on May 10.

“Trump’s defamatory statements post-verdict show the depth of his malice toward Carroll since it is hard to imagine defamatory conduct that could possibly be more motivated by hatred, ill will, or spite,” the lawyers wrote in the complaint. “This conduct supports a very substantial punitive damages award in Carroll’s favor both to punish Trump, to deter him from engaging in further defamation, and to deter others from doing the same.”

During the town hall, the former president called the verdict a “fake story” and denied he knew Carroll.

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“She’s a whack job,” Trump said, adding, “What kind of a woman meets somebody and brings them up, and within minutes you’re playing hanky-panky in a dressing room.”

According to Reuters, attorneys for Carroll said in a letter to U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Monday that because “Trump’s alleged defamatory statements were essentially the same, the only open issues are whether he was immune for making the first statement, and if not what damages he owes.”

Attorneys for Trump filed a notice of appeal in New York on May 11, contesting the federal jury’s verdict that found him liable for committing battery and defamation.