Trump slams “dirty” restaurant that asked Sanders to leave

Team Udayavani, Jun 26, 2018, 9:35 AM IST

Washington: President Donald Trump today lashed out at the Virginia restaurant that refused to serve his press secretary Sarah Sanders, suggesting that the “dirty” eatery “badly needs a paint job” and must focus more on cleaning its “filthy canopies, doors and windows”.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders was kicked out of The Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia on Friday for working for Trump.

“Last night I was told by the owner of Red Hen in Lexington, VA to leave because I work for POTUS and I politely left. Her actions say far more about her than about me. I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so,” Sanders said in a tweet. Trump slammed the 26-seat farm-to-table restaurant today for refusing to serve a “fine person” like Sarah Sanders.

“The Red Hen Restaurant should focus more on cleaning its filthy canopies, doors and windows (badly needs a paint job) rather than refusing to serve a fine person like Sarah Huckabee Sanders,” he said in a tweet. “I always had a rule, if a restaurant is dirty on the outside, it is dirty on the inside!” Trump, an admitted germophobe, added.

The restaurant’s co-owner Stephanie Wilkinson told ‘The Washington Post’ that her reasons to kick Sanders out included the concerns of employees who were gay and knew she had defended Trump’s desire to bar transgender people from the military.

Wilkinson said she believed Sanders works in an “inhumane and unethical” administration. The incident had come days after Homeland Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was booed at a Mexican restaurant in Washington DC.

Both cases come amid increasing pressure on the US government over its controversial policy of separating migrant children from their parents at the Mexican border.

A decision by the administration to criminally prosecute every undocumented migrant crossing the border led to some 2,300 children being separated from their parents in May and June, and sparked a global wave of outrage. President Trump has now halted family separations but says he remains committed to the “zero tolerance” policy.

Sanders’ father, former Fox News host and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, had accused the restaurant of bigotry for asking his daughter to leave .

“Bigotry. On the menu at Red Hen Restaurant in Lexington VA,” he tweeted. “Or you can ask for the ‘Hate Plate’. And appetizers are ‘small plates for small minds'”, he said.