Inspired Life
A Baltimore shop put Trumps tweets on a best-selling mug. Some profits will go to help the city.
A Baltimore engraving store pasted President Trump's tweets on a mug. A week later, it became a best-seller. (Shana Beach/Shana Beach)
By Hannah Natanson
August 10 at 10:54 AM
The tweet-emblazoned mug was supposed to be an inside joke. ... When a Baltimore-based engraving shop pasted President Trumps negative words about the city onto a blue coffee cup affixing the phrase I love my disgusting rodent and rat infested mess above a map of the area it was purely for the stores owners and one employee. Just a way to let off steam and laugh.
It was too good not to do, said Robbie Marcouillier, the general manager of
Chase Street Accessories & Engraving, which sits around the corner from the office of Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) in downtown Baltimore. But then it just blew up.
The store
posted a picture of the mug on Reddit late in the evening on July 27, the day Trump tweeted his remarks. As the presidents assertion that no human would want to live in the majority-black city drew national condemnation as racist, the post also gained attention.
....
It eventually earned over 500 up-votes on the social media site. And sales of the mug, which costs about $25, started trickling in, too a dozen the first day, up to about 100 the next and, as of Friday, close to 500.
Long before it went viral, Chase Street had decided: Even if it only sold 10, it would donate 10 percent of the profits from all mug sales to Thread, a nonprofit organization that helps underperforming Baltimore high school students overcome challenging home situations to succeed academically, personally and professionally. The shop gave Thread $200 for the month of July, and expects to donate a larger sum at the end of this month.
We decided to donate to a nonprofit that worked with the youth because they are our future, Marcouillier, 33, said. Were taking Trumps words and using them to reinvest into our city.
Chase Street Accessories & Engraving sits around the corner from the office of Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, whom President Trump targeted on Twitter, in downtown Baltimore. (Shana Beach/Shana Beach)
....
Hannah Natanson is a reporter covering social issues in the D.C. metro area. She joined The Washington Post as an intern in June 2018. Follow
https://twitter.com/hannah_natanson