#BoycottOliveGarden

Submission 4,154

Part of a series on Donald Trump. [View Related Entries]

Overview

#BoycottOliveGarden refers to the controversy surrounding a social media post that accused the Olive Garden restaurant corporation of donating to the re-election fund for United States President Donald Trump. Olive Garden has since denied the allegation and the post has been deleted.

Background

On August 25th, 2019, Twitter ^[1] user @LilleyDennese tweeted, "Olive Garden is funding Trump’s re-election in 2020. It would be terrible if you shared this and Olive Garden lost business." Within 24 hours, and before the tweet was deleted, it had amassed more than 59,000 likes and 58,000 retweets. However, the tweet did not include any source that validated the claim.

Developments

Online Reaction

Some reacted to the tweet by supporting a boycott. Twitter^[2] user @cmclymer tweeted, "When you're here, you're cancelled". The tweet received more than 2,700 likes and 330 retweets in 24 hours (shown below, left).

Others criticized the boycott. Twitter^[3] user @CurlyNerdyBry94 tweeted,^[3] "Seriously? Boycotting everything just cuz of who they support? No wonder why republicans laugh at us liberals. I eat where i want. I care about good ass food. #BoycottOliveGarden." Within 24 hours, the tweet received more than 4,400 likes and 530 retweets (shown below, right).

Some pointed out that there was no basis for the claim. Twitter^[4] user @FeldmanAdam tweeted,^[4] "Guys, it really looks like there is no sourced justification to #BoycottOliveGarden so I'm just going to keep not eating there for the regular reasons." Within 24 hours, the tweet received more than 3,500 likes and 520 retweets (shown below).

Olive Garden's Response

Following the initial tweet, Olive Garden denied the allegations. They tweeted,^[5] "We don’t know where this information came from, but it is incorrect. Our company does not donate to presidential candidates." Within 24 hours, the tweet received more than 4,900 likes and 1,600 retweets (shown below).