A veteran-owned brewery in Freeport, Maine, has cancelled a campaign event for president Donald Trump that was to be headlined by his daughter-in-law.
The owners said they had been misled and were unaware it was an official campaign event and will close the brewery for the day instead.
Ex-Marine Brad Nadeau and his wife Nancy, the owners of Stars and Stripes Brewing, were alerted by an article in The Bangor Daily News that cited a campaign news release listing the brewery as the first stop on a “Woman For Trump” bus tour.
Planned for Wednesday, the Nadeaus had been told that members of the campaign, including Lara Trump, would be coming in for a beer and would get pizza from a neighbouring restaurant.
They were told reporters might come too, but did not know it was a formal event.
After being deluged with negative comments online, Mr Nadeau, an Iraq War veteran, called the campaign and cancelled the event on Tuesday.
The brewery does not host political events or endorse candidates and was created to support veterans, service members and the community, according to a Facebook post.
Mr Nadeau said that the brewery is not “anti-Trump” or “anti-anything”.
“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 said. “But when it comes to politics, people are so far on either side.”
It’s unclear whether the Maine event to be headlined by Lara Trump will be moved to another location, but the bus tour is scheduled to end in New Hampshire on Thursday.
