One Washington, D.C. pizzeria owner said she received more support than backlash for her congratulatory message to President-elect Trump on his 2024 win, arguing the praise was indicative of the fact that voters are “tired” of polarized politics.
Mariya Rusciano, who runs Menomale Pizza alongside her husband Ettore, joined “The Faulkner Focus” to discuss how the public responded to her viral X post.
“People started wishing… for our restaurant to 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 sorts of names… One lady in particular yelled profanities at my husband on the street.”
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“But outside of that, it’s been mostly limited to social media,” she continued. “But there has been some upside to what we did because… As the post started going viral across DC and the region, we received many more messages of support far outweighing the negative comments, which really showed me that people, even in a place like D.C., are tired of the divisive rhetoric, and it’s about time we come together and start honoring one another as fellow Americans.”
“The people have spoken. @realDonaldTrump won the popular vote and the electoral college. Congratulations!” The Menomale Pizza owner wrote. “Can we gift @WhiteHouse a nice Italian wood burning pizza oven?”
The post was flooded with angry comments from D.C. residents, where over 92% of the electorate voted for Vice President Kamala Harris.
One local asked Rusciano if she was “trying to go out of business.”
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“What an odd tweet! You were on my radar as I spend a lot of time in Brookland but I am so confused – are you trying to go out of business?” an X user named Lisa posted in reply.
Several others threatened that they would boycott the pizzeria or cursed out the business owners for their “tone-deaf” remark.
But Rusciano said she was just following suit with what other companies in Washington, D.C. have historically done as they engage in political debate.
“Quite frankly, restaurants in D.C. talk and post about politics regularly,” Rusciano said. “There was one particular establishment, I don’t remember the name now, that was posting that they’ll be popping bottles of champagne if Harris wins, so, quite frankly, we were just… hopping on the trending topic, trying to promote ourselves.”
“And while I did expect some unhappy comments, I did not see that it would go as viral as it did,” she continued.
Rusciano previously clarified that she would’ve posted a similar message had Harris won the election and didn’t feel like they were “doing anything unique” among D.C. businesses by sharing a post about the election in the political town.
Faulkner asked if she had felt pressure to keep her workers safe following the social media stir.
“Things have been calm, and it’s business as usual,” she responded.
FOX Business’ Kristine Parks contributed to this report.
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