Workers in Washington, D.C. area restaurants told the Washingtonian they plan to refuse service or provide substandard service to Trump officials. This behavior isn’t exactly new. It’s simply a return to the bad old days of Trump’s first term when administration officials were frequently subjected to this behavior.
We recall high-profile slights such as when the owner of the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, famously asked then-White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to leave her establishment in June 2018.
Around the same time, Antifa protestors harassed then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen at a Mexican restaurant in D.C. where she was dining with a friend, yelling, “Shame!” They were angry over remarks Nielsen had made about family separations at the border.
In September 2018, during the Brett Kavanaugh Senate confirmation hearings, Sen. Ted Cruz and his wife Heidi were driven out of an Italian restaurant by protestors.
This behavior was encouraged by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), who famously railed, “If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store … you get out and you create a crowd. … tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”
The author of the Washingtonian article, Jessica Sidman, appeared to be completely on board with the new rules. After all, she believes that “Home Rule” is under threat.
This time around, with a full Republican sweep of government, an even larger cast of divisive characters, and no Trump Hotel in which to congregate, the MAGA crowd is likely to feel even more omnipresent when they swagger into DC. Inevitably, that will lead to clashes in a fiercely blue, politically engaged city where Home Rule is under threat, countless jobs are at risk, and less than 7 percent of voters picked Trump in the first place.
Zac Hoffman, a manager at the National Democratic Club, told Sidman, “The shift in politics will be visceral across several aspects of daily life. You expect the masses to just ignore RFK [Jr.] eating at Le Diplomate on a Sunday morning after a few mimosas and not to throw a drink in his face?”
Actually Zac, yes, we do.
Hoffman goes so far as to say that RFK Jr.’s presence would put undue pressure on restaurant staff and fellow diners. “If you’re just going out for a nice dinner or it’s your anniversary or birthday and, God forbid, RFK Jr. is sitting next to you, now you’re going to be dealing with whatever repercussions happen from that.”
Suzannah Van Rooy, a server and manager at Beuchert’s Saloon in Capitol Hill, shared her “red lines” with Sidman. “I personally would refuse to serve any person in office who I know of as being a sex trafficker or trying to deport millions of people. It’s not, ‘Oh, we hate Republicans.’ It’s that this person has moral convictions that are strongly opposed to mine, and I don’t feel comfortable serving them.”
“Fine-dining bartender Nancy,” who wished to remain anonymous, said she would refuse to serve certain Trump officials. “There is power in making it known that you’re not comfortable with a situation, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be this big dramatic show. It’s just little bits of resistance that add up, and little bits of resistance that other people will see and hopefully feel empowered to stand on those convictions as well.”
“Bartender Joseph,” who voted for Harris, is pleased about the new crop of Republicans coming into D.C. Republicans, he claims, are better tippers and generally lower maintenance guests than Democrats. “I think my tip average from Republicans—at least ones that I or a coworker has recognized—is close to 30 percent. With Dems, I’m surprised if it’s over 20.”
One DC restaurant owner, a lifelong Democrat, told Sidman he believes in serving everyone and said he has spoken with his staff about this. “We chose our profession, and it’s the hospitality industry and sometimes we have to serve people that we don’t like. … We can’t create negative situations. We need to de-escalate situations, not escalate them in restaurants.”
The author acknowledges that most restaurant owners or workers do not welcome the “negative attention that comes with a big messy confrontation. But some may turn to discreet acts of resistance aimed less at causing a scene and more at empowering themselves in small ways.”
Nancy, the anonymous bartender, agreed, saying, “This person theoretically has the power to take away your rights, but I have the power to make you wait 20 minutes to get your entree. … There’s a lot of opportunities for us as workers to feel like we’re taking our power back, while not necessarily ruining someone’s life. Giving them a subtle inconvenience feels like a little bit of a win for us.”
One D.C. area hostess said she would give a Republican a bad table but would “otherwise guarantee decent and polite service.”
Frankly, restaurant workers can do whatever they want – once. However, if they do, chances are pretty good that half of their business will evaporate pretty quickly. After all, there’s no shortage of restaurants out there to choose from.
That “subtle inconvenience” that the aforementioned Nancy said feels like a “little bit of a win,” may turn out to be more expensive than she expects.
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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