A Texas mom says anti-Trump border wall activists called her seven-year-old son “Hitler” because he set up a hot chocolate stand to raise money for the project. The boy said he wanted to help the president after he listened to the recent State of the Union Address.
Benton Stevens became curious about the border wall after hearing President Trump talk about it on February 6. His mother, Jennifer Stevens, said she and her husband Shane explained what it was about, KXAN NBC reported.
“He wanted to know about the wall so we explained what it was about and he (Benton) was like ‘I want to raise money for the wall,’” the Austin, Texas, area mother explained. “People think he’s brainwashed. Well, of course, he supports Trump because we do, and he hears how we talk and this and that. Call that brainwashing, but I call it parenting because we instill our values in him.”
His excitement grew and he begged his parents to let him set up a stand to help raise money to build the wall. His older brothers pitched in to help and mom supplied the hot chocolate. Soon, Benton’s border wall stand was in business outside a strip mall near Steiner Ranch. In one hour on a Saturday, the young entrepreneur raked in $231 in sales. However, some people were not impressed and complained to local store owners.
“I guess some liberals – or whatever you want to call them – they were griping at the owner (of the store) and going in and yelling at him and slamming him on Facebook,” Stevens explained to the KXAN reporter. She said the stand wasn’t on the store’s property, but they decided to shut it down to not cause him any problems.
She said that during the stand’s short operation, someone posted a photo on Facebook and the issue “took off.”
“It seems like there are more people supporting it than against it but the people that are against it keep going and going and going,” she said. Benton became fired up about the reactions and wanted to get back in business. On Sunday, they set the stand up again and, once again, the reactions hit both ends of the political spectrum.
“He was called a little Hitler yesterday,” Stevens explained. “A guy pointed at him in his car and then he said that we didn’t like brown people. I don’t understand that at all.”
Facebook user Rich Watkins posted, “Your kids nickname already is Little Hitler. Good job getting him bullied [expletive].”
Another user, Charles Bowman, pledged to donate $2 to Benton’s Venmo account @BentonsHotChocolateStand every time Benton receives a negative comment, Shane Stevens told Breitbart News Monday night.
Facebook user Miguel Jesus Ortiz did not appear pleased with the young boy’s efforts. “I would’ve spat on that kids stand, and would’ve took his money,” he posted Monday night. The post appears to have been removed after publication.
The family shrugged off the negative attention, calling it the “price you pay when you make a political stance.”
The Stevens family are active Republicans, she said. She explained that they intend to turn the money raised, now over $2,000 over to the GoFundMe page set up to help pay for the president’s border wall.
As of January 5, the page set up to raise private contributions to build sections of border walls along the Mexican border raised $19 million, Breitbart News reported. By mid-February, the campaign which began in mid-December hit nearly $21 million.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for the Breitbart Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.