Woman fired from job after confronting man in MAGA hat at Starbucks
A California woman lost her job after confronting a man wearing one of President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” hats outside a Starbucks, KTVU reported.
The woman, identified by the news outlet as Rebecca Mankey, has been fired by her employer, Gryphon Stringed Instruments, a store in Palo Alto.
“Gryphon does not believe anyone should be harassed or subject to hate speech no matter their beliefs. Music has historically been something that has brought people of diverse socio-political backgrounds together,” the guitar sales and repair shop posted on its Facebook page.
{mosads}The firing comes after Mankey allegedly confronted a 74-year-old man identified as Victor at a local coffee shop on Monday.
Victor, who was wearing a MAGA hat, told the outlet that a woman came over and started yelling at him while trying to get the other Starbucks customers riled up.
“This woman came over and not only started screaming at me, she turned to the Starbucks audience and said, ‘Hey everybody come here! This guy’s a racist! This guy hates brown people,’” Victor recalled.
Mankey then reportedly took to social media to brag about confronting the Trump supporter.
“I yelled at him about how it was not okay to hate brown people. I called him more names and told him to call the police. He wouldn’t call the police so I called him a wimp, yelling at him to get the [expletive] out of my town,” Mankey wrote online, according to KTVU. “I’m going to publicly shame him in town and try to get him fired.”
Victor said the social media posts were evidence of “Trump derangement syndrome.”
“If you can’t tell the difference between a hat that says ‘Make America Great Again’ and a Nazi helmet or a Ku Klux Klan hat, I’d say you’re deranged,” the man said.
The Palo Alto Police Department told the local station that it was not contacted by Victor about the incident, but that Mankey has reported threats she has been receiving from her Facebook post.
Richard Johnston, the owner of Gryphon Stringed Instruments, told the outlet that people started calling his store after Mankey’s Facebook post, raising questions or extending threats against the business.
Jonhston said Mankey, who served as the office manager for four years, was a friend since grade school, but he decided to fire her for publicly targeting someone over their political beliefs.
“We’ve always felt that Gryphon was the equivalent of kind of a musical town square for the community. And we welcome people of all views,” Johnston told the outlet.
The “MAGA” hat, a symbol of Trump’s campaign, has sparked controversy since his 2016 election.
A school bus aide in Martin County, Fla., earlier this month was suspended without pay for four days after surveillance video captured her swiping one of the Trump hats off a student’s head.
A New Jersey teen was arrested and charged in February with attacking an 81-year-old man for wearing a “MAGA” hat.