Food workers in Washington, D.C., have vowed to deny service and cause other inconveniences to members of the incoming Trump administration.
Industry veterans, bartenders and servers in the capital said: Washingtonian He believed that resistance to Republican figures in progressive cities was inevitable and a matter of conscience.
“Do we expect the public to ignore RFK at Le Diplomate and not throw drinks in his face after a few mimosas on a Sunday morning?” asked D.C. restaurant veteran and now national said Zach Hoffman, a Democratic Party manager. club.
In the report, bartenders and servers pledged to avoid certain officials or perform other small acts of resistance against these figures in order to take back “power.”
“In theory, this person has the power to take away your rights, but I have the power to make you wait 20 minutes for your entree,” said Nancy, a bartender at a high-end restaurant.
“There are many opportunities for us as workers to feel like we are taking back our power without necessarily ruining someone's life. “It feels like a little victory,” she continued.
Nancy said she would refuse service to certain Trump administration officials. If her employer tried to coerce her, she claimed she would quit “on the spot.”
“There's power in letting people know you're not happy with the situation, and it doesn't necessarily have to be a big dramatic show,” she said. “I hope that little bits of resistance add up and that other people see those little pieces of resistance and feel empowered to stand up for what they believe in.”
Susannah Van Looy, a server and manager at Buechert Saloon in the Capitol, also vowed to refuse service to Trump administration officials who she felt held moral views contrary to her own.
“I personally refuse to serve anyone in office that I know is a sex trafficker or is trying to deport millions of people,” she said. Ta.
“It's not like, 'Oh, we don't like the Republican Party.' It's just that this person has moral beliefs that strongly disagree with mine, and I don't feel comfortable serving them.” I feel it,” Van Rooy added.
One anonymous host at a high-end restaurant said he looked up every person in the Trump administration online to find out who they were and would give them a bad table if they came in.
“We only serve bad tables, but otherwise guarantee decent and courteous service,” she continued. “It feels like the fact that they get a bad table is nothing compared to the harm they do.”
But not all Liberal workers mentioned in the report intended to protest the incoming government while working.
A bartender named Joseph said he was disappointed with the election results but could expect higher tips with more Republicans in Washington.
“I think the average tip from a Republican, at least a Republican that my colleagues and I recognize, is closer to 30%. For Democrats, I'd be surprised if it was over 20,” he said. , added that Republicans also tend to have lower maintenance costs.
The comments bring back memories of when Trump was first inaugurated as president, when Republican officials were harassed while dining at a restaurant in the Washington, D.C., area.
In 2018, then-White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her family were kicked out of a restaurant in Virginia, and Homeland Security Secretary Kirsten Nielsen was heckled and harassed at a Mexican restaurant in Washington, D.C.
Months later, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and his wife were also chased out of a Washington, D.C., restaurant by left-wing protesters.
California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters encouraged her supporters to fight back against the Trump administration following the two incidents. She said at the time that current administration officials defending Trump “know what they're doing is wrong” and that they hope to soon appear in public peacefully and without harassment. He said he would not be able to show up. She later recanted that statement.
