Vaccine mandate protesters slam Trump as a 'fraud' after being turned away from Trump Grill

The Trump Grill, located inside Trump Tower in New York City, refused to allow a group of vaccine mandate protesters to eat at the restaurant on Thursday after they failed to provide proof of vaccination. In response, the group slammed former President Donald Trump as a "fraud" and "a little hypocritical" for enforcing the city's indoor dining vaccine mandate, rather than paying the fines associated with defying the requirement, Newsweek reports.
While Trump has come around on promoting the COVID-19 vaccines, he's maintained that "there can't be mandates and all those things." As he further put it to Fox News this week, "The mandate will destroy people's lives — it destroys people's lives, just as the vaccine saves people."
Trump Hotels, however, says on its website that its Manhattan location requires proof of vaccination "in accordance with the most recent local government mandate."
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While the protesters made their point, one can't help but wonder why they wanted to eat so badly at the "worst restaurant in America" in the first place.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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