Well, Trump Burger, it’s been one wild-ass ride.
Turns out the Texas burger chain themed to cash in on MAGA Mania has dropped President Donald Trump’s name from all four of its locations, the Houston Chronicle reported Thursday. The rebranding follows a spate of legal issues around the brand’s ownership and the near-deportation of two of its owners.
Despite the branding shuffle, the chain’s Houston-area locations have chosen to riff on the same theme — just minus the Trump name.
The Bellville location has become President Burger, while the one in Flatonia now bears the moniker MAGA Burger, according to the Chronicle. Meanwhile, the Kemah spot rebranded first as MAGA Burger USA, then as Freedom Burgers & Beer Garden.
Meanwhile, the downtown Houston restaurant has closed and now appears to be in the process of reopening as Empire Pizza.
For those who haven’t been keeping up, the chain has been mired in controversy in recent years, and not only for its polarizing name. For one, the business’ co-owners are feuding over who owns the name, according to the Chronicle. Then, last year two of the business partners were nearly deported by the very administration they championed.
Originally founded in 2016 as Trump Cafe by couple Suad Hamedah and Iyad Abu El Hawa, the restaurant generated social media attention due to its controversial decorations and menu items.
The couple later brought on Roland Beainy as a partner and the public face of the rebranded Trump Burger. After that, the ownership group opened additional locations throughout the Houston area.
But, alas, the founding couple is now in a legal dispute with Beainy, accusing him of stealing the brand Trump Burger from them, the Chronicle reports.
“I’m taking the restaurants back from him, because they’re mine,” Abu El Hawa told the newspaper. “Everything is mine.”
And that in itself is a rather Trumpian proclamation, no?
Further complicating matters, both El Hawa and Beainy were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last year.
ICE arrested Beainy, originally from Lebanon, last May on claims of defrauding the U.S. immigration system and overstaying an expired visa. Al Hawa was picked up just a few weeks later on accusations that he remained in the country illegally after a judge ordered his deportation in September 2009.
However, those who developed a craving for the Trump name on their burger shouldn’t fret.
El Hawa, who was released by a judge from ICE custody in October, now tells the Chronicle he plans to open up a new Trump Burger in Tomball.
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