Tim Treadstone, better known by his stage name “Baked Alaska,” is trying to correct what he refers to as the “hoaxing media’s” misleading attempt to spin his “Operation Trump Cup” movement as a protest against Starbucks.
In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Treadstone noted that “the media has twisted the narrative. Here’s the funny thing. This is a statement, not a protest.”
The #TrumpCup hashtag and ensuing movement has gone viral. “I never said this was a protest,” Treadstone said, taking aim at the mainstream media. “The media has been doing a hit piece on me ad other Trump supporters.”
He suggested, “they made up the whole thing about it being a protest. I never said this was a boycott. I never said boycott Starbucks or don’t shop at Starbucks. If I was trying to do that, I wouldn’t go spend my money there. We are not trying to put Starbucks out of business. That was never my intention.”
The entire controversy began when a Starbucks customer in Florida caught video of a barista refusing to write the name “Trump” on his cup. The barista allegedly even threatened to call the cops on the patron over his request.
“I saw the video on Paul Joseph Watson’s Twitter account, of the customer asking for ‘Trump’ to be written on a Starbucks cup.” He said he thought to himself, “that’s insane.” Treadstone said his dad, who was visiting from Alaska, gave him the idea of creating the #TrumpCup hashtag.
“So I put together a tweet and wrote ‘Operation Trump Cup is commencing. Go to Starbucks and ask for a cup with Trump written on it and video it to see if they deny you. And if they do, show that off too.’ And boy was I right.”
Treadstone said he woke up the next morning to the #TrumpCup hashtag trending on international news and social media. “It went super vial. This was a movement that I had put together to capitalize on the original idea,” which he attributed in part to Joe Biggs from InfoWars. “Me and Joe had the same idea at the same time without talking to each other, because great minds think alike.”
Instead, Treadstone said the movement was a sort of social experiment and “a fun thing for us to do to raise awareness about support for President Trump and to stand up for the guy who wasn’t allowed to have Trump written on his Starbucks cup. It’s to let the world know that we are allowed to put our next president’s name on a Starbucks cup.”
He added that he would consider a protest if every single Starbucks location denied patrons the right to have the name “Trump” written on their cups. “But I doubt every single Starbucks employee or location does this,” he said.
That’s the difference between the left and the right. When we make change we have fun and it doesn’t have to be negative and have screaming and crying and blocking highways. You can do social media and do things that actually boost the economy. This is going to be a great day for Starbucks and boost their profits. They are an American company and we are supportive of that.
Treadstone added, “I’m just keeping them in check and making it fun along the way.”
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter and Periscope @AdelleNaz
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