Jake Lindemyer walked into a Michigan Smoothie King wearing a Trump hoodie and got thrown out.
That was supposed to be the end of it.
Now his kids are home from school, his 18-year-old daughter has death threats in her inbox, and strangers are telling his family they know where they live.
Jake Lindemyer Was Refused Service at Smoothie King for Wearing a Trump Hoodie
It was Sunday, March 1, at a Smoothie King on Jackson Road in Ann Arbor – a college town so deep blue it makes San Francisco look reasonable.
Jake and his wife Erika walked in for smoothies.
The two employees behind the counter saw his "Trump 2024 – Take America Back" hoodie and refused to take their order.
Erika asked if everything was OK.
They said they didn't feel comfortable serving them.
Erika started recording.
"We were just wanting a smoothie," she told the workers on camera. "You said, 'We don't feel comfortable serving you' because of my husband's hoodie. That is discrimination."
"I don't care," one employee fired back. "Have a great day. Get out."
https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/2028398745184817217?s=20
The second employee delivered the line that ended their careers: "We're not serving Trump supporters. You have a great day."
The video went viral overnight.
The franchise owner had both employees terminated by Monday.
One of them – Janiyah Mishelle – launched a GoFundMe asking for $700, boasting about refusing to serve Trump supporters.
GoFundMe pulled the campaign.
She then posted a video joking she might have "accidentally started a race war."
Smoothie King Fired the Employees but the Death Threats Against His Family Are Still Coming
Here's where the story goes from absurd to ugly.
Jake Lindemyer is a regular guy who frequents that Smoothie King, wore a hoodie he believed in, and got thrown out.
His reward for going public is thousands of threatening messages directed at his entire family.
"My daughter is getting harassed," he told Fox 2 Detroit. "Her safety is being threatened. She's getting death threats. She and I are getting messages saying, 'You better watch your back. We know where you live.'"
The family filed a police report in Ann Arbor.
His kids missed school Monday – kept home because two employees decided a Trump hoodie justified a public confrontation, and the left-wing internet decided the family deserved to be terrorized for filming it.
He isn't backing down.
"Not at all, I can't," he said when asked whether he'd stop wearing Trump gear. "It's something I believe in."
https://twitter.com/calebparke/status/2028855347201413219?s=20
This story isn't actually about smoothies.
It's about a pattern that's been building since Trump's first inauguration.
In 2017, a man in a MAGA hat was ejected from a Manhattan bar called The Happiest Hour – and when he sued, a New York court ruled that political affiliation isn't a protected class under state law.
In 2018, a restaurant manager in Vancouver refused to serve a customer in a MAGA hat and called it a stand against "racism, bigotry, and white supremacy."
The manager was fired.
In 2024, a Target employee in California was berated by a customer for wearing a Charlie Kirk "Freedom" T-shirt – and the customer got doxxed, bombarded with thousands of profanity-laced calls to her workplace.
Every time a Trump supporter gets humiliated on camera, the people who engineered it treat the viral moment as a victory.
Then come the threats.
Michigan attorney Steve Marko confirmed the legal reality on Fox 2: Michigan has no state law protecting political affiliation in places of public accommodation, meaning the employees technically had the right to refuse service.
But there's a twist.
Ann Arbor's own city ordinance explicitly bans discrimination based on political beliefs in public accommodations – meaning the franchise may have faced a legal complaint even if Smoothie King hadn't moved first.
https://twitter.com/YourOwnRisk33/status/2029958014141354239?s=20
The corporate response was swift and correct.
The employees were fired.
The GoFundMe was killed.
But Jake Lindemyer's daughter is still reading death threats, and the people sending them haven't lost a thing.
A working man wore a hoodie he was proud of, got nationally humiliated, and had to explain to his kids why strangers want to hurt them for it.
The left calls Trump supporters dangerous.
Ask the Lindemyer family who actually showed up dangerous.
Sources:
- Amy Furr, "Better Watch Your Back: Trump Supporter Refused Service at Michigan Smoothie King Says Family Is Being Threatened," Breitbart, March 5, 2026.
- Ryan Ermanni, "Michigan Smoothie King Employees Fired After Denying Service to Customer Wearing Trump Shirt," FOX 2 Detroit, March 4, 2026.
- Dani Reid, "Exclusive: Trump Voter Denied at Smoothie King Breaks Silence," Newsweek, March 5, 2026.
- "Restaurant Manager Fired for Refusing Service to Man in MAGA Hat," The Hill, June 30, 2018.