Maine brewery cancels Women for Trump event, claims it was misled by campaign

A Freeport, Maine, brewery has canceled a Trump reelection campaign event that was scheduled for Wednesday, with the owners saying they were not told it was an official campaign event.

Brad and Nancy Nadeau, the owners of Stars and Stripes Brewing, said they were told some Trump campaign personnel, including the president’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump, planned to come to the brewery for a drink and get pizza from a neighborhood restaurant.

However, a campaign press release touted the brewery as a stop on the “Women for Trump” bus tour, according to the Bangor Daily News. Brad Nadeau, a Marine who served in Iraq, said the brewery does not endorse candidates or host formal political events, and said he called the campaign to cancel the event after they saw the establishment in online Trump event listings.

“I tried so hard to keep this brewery positive, and we haven’t had any backlash because we don’t do anything that’s negative,” he told the newspaper. “But when it comes to politics, people are so far on either side.”

“We were asked in this particular situation if a group of women who support a political agenda could enjoy a beer at our brewery. We believe everyone has equal rights as they should, and do not deny anyone from entering our facility,” the brewery said in a statement on its Facebook page. “Now we see that there is a political reasoning to be here and we again do not endorse any political party nor view.”

A spokesperson for the Trump campaign disputed the brewery’s account, telling The Hill the owners had been made aware of the nature of the event from the beginning.

In addition to Lara Trump, the event was set to feature several other high-profile advisers to the president and his campaign, including Katrina Pierson, Mercedes Schlapp and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, as well as Dale Crafts, the GOP nominee for the state’s 2^nd Congressional District.

Maine Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Marra poked at the Trump campaign in a statement on the matter, saying, “While the rest of the country deals with the fallout from Trump’s failed coronavirus response, the Trump campaign can’t even get a photo op right.”

—Updated at 3:48 p.m.