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One employee dismissed the concern.
“I don’t care,” one employee fired back. “Have a great day. Get out.”
Another worker reportedly made the remark that triggered the backlash that followed online.
“We’re not serving Trump supporters. You have a great day.”
The clip spread rapidly across social media platforms, drawing national attention and putting pressure on the franchise owner to respond.
Within a day, the two workers involved in the confrontation were terminated from their positions.
One of those former employees, identified as Janiyah Mishelle, attempted to capitalize on the viral moment by launching a GoFundMe campaign seeking $700. In the fundraiser description, she reportedly celebrated the decision to refuse service to Trump supporters.
The campaign did not last long.
GoFundMe removed the page after it began circulating online. The controversy intensified further when Mishelle posted a separate video online joking that she might have “accidentally started a race war.”
But while the employees lost their jobs, the fallout for the Lindemyer family has continued to escalate.
What began as a disagreement over service at a smoothie shop has now become something far more disturbing.
According to Lindemyer, his family has been flooded with threatening messages from strangers across the internet since the video went viral.
“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 threats became serious enough that the family filed a police report with authorities in Ann Arbor.
Lindemyer also revealed that his children were kept home from school the following day because of safety concerns stemming from the online harassment campaign.
The father says he simply wore clothing supporting a candidate he believes in and never expected the situation to explode into a national controversy that would put his family in danger.
Despite the intimidation, Lindemyer says he will not stop expressing his political views.
“Not at all, I can’t,” he said when asked whether he’d stop wearing Trump gear. “It’s something I believe in.”
The confrontation has also sparked renewed discussion about whether political beliefs are protected under discrimination laws.
Michigan attorney Steve Marko told Fox 2 that state law does not include political affiliation among protected classes in public accommodation cases. In other words, businesses generally cannot be sued under state law simply for refusing service based on politics.
However, Ann Arbor’s local laws add a twist.
The city has an ordinance that prohibits discrimination in public accommodations based on political beliefs. That means the employees’ actions could potentially have violated local regulations even if state law does not cover the issue.
For its part, Smoothie King moved quickly to distance itself from the employees’ conduct.
The franchise owner dismissed the workers involved and publicly condemned the incident once the video gained widespread attention.
But the disciplinary action has done little to quiet the online hostility aimed at Lindemyer and his family.
For them, the story did not end when the employees lost their jobs.
A routine visit for a smoothie has now turned into a disturbing reminder of how quickly political tensions can escalate in the age of viral videos and online outrage.
And for the Lindemyer family, the price of wearing a hoodie supporting a political candidate has included threats, harassment, and fear for their safety.
