A Washington, D.C., pizzeria owner said she received more support than backlash for her congratulatory message to President-elect Trump on his 2024 victory, arguing that the praise was indicative of the fact that voters are “tired” of polarizing politics.
Maria Rusciano, who runs Menomale Pizza alongside her husband, Ettore, Join the Faulkner Focus To discuss how the public responded to her viral post
“People started wishing…our restaurant would go out of business, and now we've been here since 2012,” Rusciano told Harris Faulkner on Friday.
“Then they started saying how D.C. doesn’t need fascist pizzerias. They asked, ‘How can we, as immigrants, congratulate President Trump?’ Then, of course, we were called all kinds of names… and one woman in particular screamed obscenities at us.” “My husband is in the street.”
“But outside of that, it was mostly just social media,” she continued. “But there was some upside to what we did because… when the post started spreading across D.C. and the region, we received so many messages of support that far outweighed the negative comments, which really showed me that people, even in a community in a place like D.C., have “We are tired of the divisive rhetoric, and it is time for us to come together and start honoring each other as American citizens.”
“The people have spoken. @realDonaldTrump won the popular vote and the Electoral College. Congratulations!” wrote the owner of Menomale Pizza. “Can we gift @WhiteHouse a beautiful wood-fired Italian pizza oven?”
The post was filled with angry comments from D.C. residents, with more than 92% of voters voting in favor Vice President Kamala Harris.
A local resident asked Rociano if she was “trying to get out of work.”
Majority of small businesses expect revenue to rise during Trump's first year in office: data
“What a weird tweet! It's been on my radar because I spend a lot of time in Brookland but I'm confused – are you trying to stop working?” User Posted in reply.
Many others threatened that they would boycott the pizzeria or curse the business owners over their “tone-deaf” remarks.
But Rusciano said she was following what other Washington, D.C., companies have historically done when engaging in political debate.
“Honestly, restaurants in D.C. talk and post about politics on a regular basis,” Rusciano said. “There was a certain organization, I can't remember the name of it now, that was posting that they would open bottles of champagne if Harris won, so, quite frankly, we were just… jumping on the trend, trying to promote ourselves.”
She continued: “While I expected some unhappy comments, I did not expect them to spread as widely as they did.”
Rossiano previously explained That she would have posted a similar message had Harris won the election and didn't feel they were “doing something unique” among D.C. businesses by sharing a post about the election in the political city.
I asked Faulkner if she felt pressure to keep her workers safe after the social media uproar.
She replied: “Things were calm, and things were going on as usual.”
FOX Business' Kristin Parks contributed to this report.
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