Anti-MAGA Milwaukee shop hit with Trump graffiti after trolling with Jan. 6 billboard
A Milwaukee spice shop was hit with Trump graffiti after the company — America’s largest independent spice retailer — said it trolled the former president with a downtown billboard that referenced the Capitol riots using the famous Guy Fawkes' "Remember, Remember" nursery rhyme.
Earlier this month, Penzeys Spices erected a billboard welcoming Donald Trump to the city with the phrase: "Remember, Remember January 6th This November!" The phrase appears to take inspiration from the British phrase, "Remember, Remember, the 5th of November, Gunpowder, Treason and Plot!"
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Welcome to Milwaukee, Mr. Trump," Penzeys wrote in a Facebook post June 13. "Our billboard, pretty much the first thing you see on the drive in from the airport to the convention site. We are waiting. Hope you are not too in prison to attend in person."
Trump reportedly called Milwaukee, home of next month's Republican National Convention, "horrible" in a closed-door meeting over crime concerns and election security.
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On Thursday, Penzeys Spices — which has an entire About Republicans section dedicated to highlighting party's "slow decline" on its site — posted again on Facebook: "First Act of RNC Vandalism!"
"Our store at the corner of Wisconsin and Water in downtown Milwaukee got graffitied this week," the store said, adding that it added rainbow coloring to the graffiti to honor Stonewall and Pride.
"The original was only one color and you guessed it, white," Bill Penzey wrote. A photo attached to the post showed the name "Trump" scrawled on a window.
"As they were committing their crime I was working, writing these words about the Republican Convention coming here to Milwaukee to share with our email list," Penzey wrote.
Penzey's email said:
"The RNC is now less than four weeks from arriving in Milwaukee, but in many ways we are still in the silly hours here. It’s like we’re being told: Sure the Republicans are coming to bury everything our community stands for and everything we’ve worked so hard to help heal," he said. "But all’s fine because not only will they be buying their burying shovels from our merchants, they’ve promised to buy only the highest-end deluxe shovels. Win! Win!"
The city doesn't need the GOP's money, he added. What it needs to prevent Republicans from winning this election cycle, he said.
"What we do need is a future where there’s honesty about Black history, where women still have rights, where transgender kids have a safe place to go potty, where America is still a democracy, and where humanity isn’t forced underground by fossil fuel-driven scorching heat," wrote Penzey.
He also referenced the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrectionist attack on the U.S. Capitol.
"They also know just what January 6 was and all their party has done to protect its leaders ever since," he said. "How does someone who grew up pledging allegiance to our flag and to the republic for which it stands instead find themselves traveling to Milwaukee to pledge their allegiance to a man who has become the greatest risk to that republic that America has ever known?"