Cockroaches and Mold: While Trump Attacks the Red Hen, His Own Establishments Are Less Than Sanitary

Turnabout is fair play, right?

Since Donald Trump decided that his presidential duties now include actively attempting to sink private businesses by becoming an online restaurant critic, it seems only fair that a man who has his name attached to so many hotels and restaurants should expect someone to look into his affairs, as well.

To recap, on Monday morning, the president took to his tweety time and decided to try and attack another private business, a rural restaurant in Lexington, Virginia called The Red Hen.

To be fair, the owners of the restaurant caused the firestorm, initially, when they asked White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her family to leave the establishment, simply because they disagreed with the policies of her boss.

All Sanders does is spew the nonsense to the press and attempts to defend the indefensible.

As I pointed out earlier, it should be the right of any business owner to deny service for whatever reason they feel serves their business best, then the public decides if they want to support that business.

I don’t personally agree with what happened to Sanders’ family. I don’t care if The Red Hen had the best chocolate cheesecake on the East Coast, I would avoid the place because I find smug liberalism to be as off-putting as the obnoxious red-capped MAGAdooks.

That being said, with everything going on in the world and the position he holds, Donald Trump shouldn’t be targeting private businesses for destruction. It’s petty, mean, and dangerous.

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. I always had a rule, if a restaurant is dirty on the outside, it is dirty on the inside!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 25, 2018

Is that “dirty,” or just rustic? How would Trump know? Has he personally visited the restaurant?

The Daily Beast did some digging, in regards to the claims of dirt and unsanitary conditions, those things that restaurants in the United States get checked for on a regular basis by authorities with community Health Departments.

In the state of Virginia’s most recent inspection of The Red Hen, it received the highest possible health rating, as far as sanitation, food storage, and all the pertinent areas of concern.

So how about Trump’s dumps?

In April, Washington D.C. inspectors visited the Trump International Hotel and found 10 health-code violations, including raw meat stored above ready-to-eat foods and containers of flour stored next to a hand sink that lacked a splash guard. Inspectors also found that the hotel was operating a number of on-site kitchens without city permits to do so.

The hotel was given a “moderate risk” rating based on that visit.

“Moderate risk.”

That’s like saying, “There’s a moderate risk you may catch Salmonella or Hepatitis A, so, eat up!”

When inspectors returned for a follow-up visit in May, nothing had been corrected, so, all those dignitaries and politicos helping the Trump family bottom line with their business, they do so at their own peril.

Keep the Pepto on standby.

BLT Prime, the steakhouse at Trump’s D.C. hotel, had many of the same issues. It was also given a “moderate risk” rating in April, when inspectors recorded the same raw-meat storage issues as the hotel and a lack of signage in the kitchen instructing employees to wash their hands.

I would hope the employees don’t need a sign to remind them of that, but…

Even as inspectors were present, employees showed some fairly unsanitary handling of cookware. “An employee dropped an empty pan on the floor and then put it inside a refrigerator,” inspectors noted. “The pan was removed for cleaning upon request.”

And again, the follow-up in May showed no improvement.

Here’s the part that should leave you queasy: The D.C. hotel is actually the “clean” Trump establishment.

Trump’s Mar-A-Lago resort has 51 recorded health violations since 2013, and that’s not counting the Mar-A-Lago beach club’s additional 30 violations.

Trump’s Doral golf club outside Miami has fared even worse: Between its main kitchen, banquet hall, café, patio grill, and bungalows, inspectors have found 524 health-code violations since 2013, including a number that resulted in fines. Among inspectors’ findings were multiple spottings of live and dead cockroaches (they noted 20-25 live ones visibly present in the main kitchen during one 2015 visit), “slimy/mold-like build-up” in coolers and freezers, and holes in kitchen walls.

This is the kind of stuff that keeps germophobes and the more paranoid types from eating out. If you weren’t a germophobe or paranoid type before, it’s the kind of stuff that would turn you into one.

As it is with Trump, usually what he’s ranting about is what he’s guilty of, himself. This is no different. The problem is, he has the platform of the presidency to attack from.