Seventeen-year-old McKenzie Gill, who lives in the Bossier City, Louisiana, is really excited about turning 18, largely because it means she’ll get to vote in her first Presidential election—and she’s voting for Donald Trump.
In fact, her birthday party is Trump-themed. McKenzie and her mom ordered a cake from the local grocery store with an American flag and “Trump 2016” on it, but the bakery refused to decorate it because the Republican candidate’s slogan offended their precious sensibilities.
McKenzie took to Facebook.
According to local news, McKenzie and her mother asked the bakery clerk at Albertsons about the birthday cake, noting that they wanted it to look patriotic, with the stars and stripes as background and “Trump 2016” written in icing. The bakery clerk said she’d make the birthday cake, but refused to write the candidate’s name.
“We just need an American flag cake with Trump 2016 on it, and right when I said Trump, the lady just (makes face) kinda Trump? And she was like I can make you a flag cake but I’m not going to write Trump on it,” McKenzie told KSLA.
McKenzie and her mom complained to the store manager and ordered the cake elsewhere. They received an apology from the grocery store chain, Albertson’s, claiming that the bakery clerk thought she couldn’t write “Trump 2016,” because the thought the phrase was copyrighted.
We apologize to our customer in Bossier City for the situation regarding the cake that was requested. Our Bakery staff member misunderstood the training provided regarding copyrighted phrases, and incorrectly informed the customer we could not fulfill her request. We would be happy to provide the cake as the customer requested.
Technically, business can’t appropriate copyrighted or trademarked phrases, putting them on cakes, even if the customer requests them. But “Trump 2016” is ubiquitous—and generic—enough that the excuse doesn’t really fly. From McKenzie’s account, it seems like the bakery clerk was just making a political statement.
The combination of cake decorating and religious freedom, of course, has been a hot-button issue on the campaign trail. A bakery called “Sweet Cakes by Melissa” faced a six-figure fine from Oregon’s human rights commission in 2015 after refusing to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex wedding. The fine was upheld and the bakers were forced to pay $100,000 with interest.
Earlier in the summer, a pastor in Texas claimed that Whole Foods had written an anti-gay slur on a cake he purchased from their bakery. That claim turned out to be a hoax.