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President Donald Trump should avoid dining at Washington, D.C., restaurants to prevent a “political maelstrom” of controversy, a local D.C. magazine warned Thursday.
Washingtonian food editor Jessica Sidman reported that Trump suggested Wednesday he might dine at a D.C. restaurant to demonstarte how safe the nation’s capital has become following his crime crackdown.
“I think it’s something we could consider doing. Love to do it. I love the White House food, but after a while, I could see going to a nice restaurant. It’s safe,” Trump told reporters.
“The problem?” Sidman wrote. “Pretty much any D.C. restaurant that the president might visit would immediately find itself in a losing situation.”
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She argued that “since the political temperature is now hotter than a pizza oven,” a restaurant could face boycotts or threats—regardless of whether Trump was welcomed or turned away by the owners.
“In deep-blue DC, there is no shortage of restaurateurs who privately (and not-so-privately!) would not want to host Trump. Turning the President away, however, would ignite a firestorm of online hate, irate phone calls, Yelp-bombing, and death threats,” she wrote, citing the backlash against Virginia’s Red Hen restaurant after its owner kicked out then-White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders in 2018.
Sidman added, “Trump, though, isn’t likely to go somewhere he’d be turned away, especially given the advance work required by Secret Service. And most restaurants would serve him because that’s just what restaurants do. Still, they would undoubtedly face boycott threats from locals and an onslaught of online and real-life rage.”
She pointed to the backlash against D.C. pizzeria Menomale Pizza after its owner congratulated Trump on winning a second term in 2024 as an example.
Martin’s Tavern owner Billy Martin, whose Georgetown restaurant has hosted presidents since the Truman administration, told the Washingtonian he was cautious about a Trump visit. Though Martin described “working the backchannels” to try and secure a visit from President Joe Biden, he was less enthusiastic about a Trump dinner.
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“We’re not actively seeking him to come,” Martin said. “It is very precarious in the political state that our country’s in. It’s not easy. I don’t need him dining and leaving, and then people coming by later throwing rocks through the window going, ‘You hosted the president!’ Or people just barraging our social media going, ‘You’re a s—y place.'”
However, Martin added that Trump would not be turned away if he came and that his restaurant has served Trump administration officials such as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Attorney General Pam Bondi, and FBI Director Kash Patel.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.
In December, Sidman reported on Washington bartenders and other food servers vowing to either shun certain Trump officials or employ other small acts of resistance if they visited their establishments.
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