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Trump supporters launch #TrumpCup as a protest against Starbucks

Posted at 7:18 PM, Nov 18, 2016
and last updated 2016-11-18 19:18:04-05

Donald Trump supporters have started asking for their Starbucks drinks under Trump’s name as a movement against the coffee giant.

After a viral video showing a Trump supporter yelling at a barista gained traction on Wednesday, other supporters have banded together to protest what they view as political and anti-white discrimination.

The man in the video told the Miami Herald that he was racially discriminated against and that the barista wouldn’t serve him because she knew he was a Trump supporter.

The hashtag #TrumpCup isn’t new, but blew up after a Twitter user posted instructions to followers Friday morning. The hashtag had more than 27,000 tweets as of Friday afternoon.

The protest is an attempt to make Starbucks baristas yell Trump’s name and write it on their coffee cups, as is the company’s regular practice.

Some supporters claim to have been refused a #TrumpCup and see it as a breach of their rights.

But others find the protest counterintuitive, as the plan relies on giving Starbucks money in the first place.

This all comes after the controversy that plagued Starbucks last year as it introduced a plain red holiday cup that was markedly different from Christmas cups in the past. Joshua Feuerstein, a former pastor, called the new cups a “war on Christmas” in a video posted to Facebook.

But many social media users find the Starbucks protests old and tiresome.

Some even call out the logic of the movement with a good-natured slight at Starbucks.

Starbucks has responded to the protest by clarifying that it doesn’t require its partners to write or call out names.

“Over the years, writing customer names on cups and calling out their names has been a fun ritual in our stores,” a Starbucks spokesperson said. “Rarely has it been abused or taken advantage of. We hope and trust that our customers will continue to honor that tradition.”