--- title: Trump Targets Restaurant That Denied Press Secretary Service description: President Donald Trump targeted the restaurant that denied service to his White House press secretary over the weekend, calling it 'filthy.' canonical: https://time.com/5320879/president-trump-tweet-red-hen-restaurant-sarah-huckabee-sanders/ author: Jennifer Calfas article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-06-25T12:38:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T20:40:17.404Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Slams Restaurant That Refused Service to Sarah Huckabee Sanders as ‘Filthy’ and ‘Dirty’ og:description: The owner of The Red Hen asked the White House Press Secretary to leave over the weekend og:url: https://time.com/5320879/president-trump-tweet-red-hen-restaurant-sarah-huckabee-sanders/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte66e48b853b74c7f/6989339d8fd2ee5df535bf56/rtx6ag0m.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5100 og:image:height: 2869 og:image:alt: U.S. President Donald Trump takes part in a working lunch with governors in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, U.S. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Slams Restaurant That Refused Service to Sarah Huckabee Sanders as ‘Filthy’ and ‘Dirty’ twitter:description: The owner of The Red Hen asked the White House Press Secretary to leave over the weekend twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte66e48b853b74c7f/6989339d8fd2ee5df535bf56/rtx6ag0m.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Slams Restaurant That Refused Service to Sarah Huckabee Sanders as ‘Filthy’ and ‘Dirty’ > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Jun 25, 2018 12:38 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump takes part in a working lunch with governors at the White House in Washington, U.S., June 21, 2018. U.S. President Donald Trump takes part in a working lunch with governors at the White House in Washington, U.S., June 21, 2018.Leah Millis—Reuters by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Jun 25, 2018 12:38 PM UTC President Donald Trump on Monday blasted the restaurant that [denied service](http://time.com/5320482/sarah-huckabee-sanders-virginia-restaurant/) to White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders over the weekend, calling it “filthy” and “dirty.” “The Red Hen Restaurant should focus more on cleaning its filthy canopies, doors and windows (badly needs a paint job) rather than refusing to serve a fine person like Sarah Huckabee Sanders,” the President tweeted. “I always had a rule, if a restaurant is dirty on the outside, it is dirty on the inside!” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1011212766487728133) White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said over the weekend that the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, [denied her service](http://time.com/5320482/sarah-huckabee-sanders-virginia-restaurant/) because she worked for the President. “Her actions say far more about her than me,” Sanders tweeted, in reference to the restaurant’s owner. “I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so.” > [](https://twitter.com/PressSec/status/1010536237457924096) Stephanie Wilkinson, the owner of the Red Hen restaurant, [told The Washington _Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2018/06/23/why-a-small-town-restaurant-owner-asked-sarah-huckabee-sanders-to-leave-and-would-do-it-again/?noredirect=on&utm%5Fterm=.7a96498da6af) that her staff “felt there are moments in time when people need to live their convictions.” “This appeared to be one,” she said. The President’s use of his massive social media platform to target the restaurant further puts the small business in the national spotlight and at the center of a debate of what, when and how private businesses can refuse to serve a customer. Additionally, Trump’s targeted comments on the décor and cleanliness of the restaurant prompted critics of the President to point to his own business’s shortfalls in the past. Earlier this year, an inspection at a restaurant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort [resulted in numerous violations](http://time.com/5103754/trump-mar-a-lago-poor-maintenance/), including improper food storage. The club also received violations for a lack of smoke detectors and broken staircases. Located about a six-hour drive from Washington, D.C., the Red Hen describes itself as “Lexington’s first farm-to-table restaurant.” The small restaurant appeared to receive an [onslaught of Yelp reviews](https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-red-hen-lexington-3) as a result of the incident (and before the President tweeted about it specifically), inciting supporters of the Trump administration to flood the reviews section with critical comments and images of Trump. (One Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based reviewer took it upon himself to write a poem critiquing the restaurant, and how it could “alienate half of their crowd.”) Wilkinson, [told the _Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2018/06/23/why-a-small-town-restaurant-owner-asked-sarah-huckabee-sanders-to-leave-and-would-do-it-again/?noredirect=on&utm%5Fterm=.275c8ae99b63) that she asked Sanders to leave at the request of her staff, some of whom said they felt uncomfortable by her presence and her defense of the Trump’s administration policies. Sanders then agreed to leave, Wilkinson told the _Post_. “I have a business, and I want the business to thrive,” Wilkinson told the _Post_. “This feels like the moment in our democracy when people have to make uncomfortable actions and decisions to uphold their morals.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5320879/president-trump-tweet-red-hen-restaurant-sarah-huckabee-sanders/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5320879/president-trump-tweet-red-hen-restaurant-sarah-huckabee-sanders/"},"headline":"Trump Slams Restaurant That Refused Service to Sarah Huckabee Sanders as ‘Filthy’ and ‘Dirty’","datePublished":"2018-06-25T12:38:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T20:40:17.404Z","description":"The owner of The Red Hen asked the White House Press Secretary to leave over the weekend","url":"https://time.com/5320879/president-trump-tweet-red-hen-restaurant-sarah-huckabee-sanders/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte66e48b853b74c7f/6989339d8fd2ee5df535bf56/rtx6ag0m.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jennifer Calfas","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte66e48b853b74c7f/6989339d8fd2ee5df535bf56/rtx6ag0m.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. President Donald Trump takes part in a working lunch with governors in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, U.S.","caption":"U.S. President Donald Trump takes part in a working lunch with governors in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, U.S.","creditText":"Leah Millis—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5320879/president-trump-tweet-red-hen-restaurant-sarah-huckabee-sanders/","name":"Trump Slams Restaurant That Refused Service to Sarah Huckabee Sanders as ‘Filthy’ and ‘Dirty’"}}]}] ```