Politics

Why A Restaurant Owner Refused To Serve A Top Trump Employee Dinner

by Max Koslowski  24 June 2018
Sarah Huckabee Sanders

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What would you do if someone walked into a restaurant you owned — someone whose politics you strongly opposed — and asked for a meal? What if it was the PM? Or Pauline Hanson? Or how about someone that worked for the PM? That situation became a reality for a small shop owner in rural United States on Friday night when Sarah Huckabee Sanders, one of president Donald Trump’s top employees, walked in.

Sanders, who is Trump’s press secretary, arrived with seven others at the Red Hen in Lexington, Virginia. Lexington is an old town with strong military roots that hosts just over 7,000 residents.

The Washington Post was able to grab a hold of the owner, and asked her why she chose to kick Sanders out of the restaurant.

“I said, ‘I’m the owner,'” Stephanie Wilkinson, the Red Hen’s owner, recalled. “‘I’d like you to come out to the patio with me for a word.'”

Once there, Wilkinson told Sanders that the restaurant had standards of “honesty, and compassion, and cooperation” that it wanted to uphold: and that because Sanders did not uphold those values, the restaurant would like her to leave.

Wilkinson made the decision after consulting with her staff, some of which were gay. All the guests at Sanders table chose to leave with her — and Wilkinson let them head off without paying for their entree.

The incident comes after a week of political tension in the United States. As she visited an immigration detention centre, first lady Melania Trump provocatively wore a jacket with the words “I really don’t care, do u?” emblazoned on the back. The president’s new border policy (which has been called “immoral“, “unconscionable” and “nothing short of torture“) has been likened to Australia’s own asylum seeker regime.

In the hours since, Red Hen’s Yelp and Facebook profiles have been overwhelmed with partisan reviews — both for and against the restaurant.

And elsewhere, people are debating whether the move was right or wrong.

Some drew comparison to small businesses refusing to serve LGBTQI individuals — a topic that drew attention recently after the Supreme Court ruled that a baker could refuse to make a cake for a gay couple.