The Latest Anti-Starbucks Protest Involves Giving Starbucks Money

In a free country there are a number of ways for a person to express displeasure with companies, policies, or elected officials, but the latest anti-Starbucks protest has people expressing their dissatisfaction with Starbucks by buying more coffee from them.

According to CNN, the new #TrumpCup protest is sort of an anti-boycott wherein Trump supporters buy coffee from Starbucks and when the barista asks for their names, they say "Trump," in the hopes of making the baristas write "Trump" on their cups and call out "Trump" when their coffees are ready. Normally a protest involves not giving money to the thing one is angry with, but this movement appears to have decided to take the opposite approach. 

It's traditional to give a name when ordering coffee at Starbucks, but there's no rule requiring that it actually be one's own name. People have often given names like "Beyonce," and last year a similar coffee-buying protest involved telling Starbucks baristas that one's name was "Merry Christmas" in an attempt to get the staff to say "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays."

Starbucks clarified to CNN that baristas were not actually required to call out customers' names or write them on cups.

"Over the years, writing customer names on cups and calling out their names has been a fun ritual in our stores. Rarely has it been abused or taken advantage of," the company said in a statement. "We hope and trust that our customers will continue to honor that tradition. We don't require our partners to write or call out names."