America has discovered that sticks and stones may break his bones, but names—“compulsive liar,” “pussy-grabber,” “Cheeto douchebucket”—will certainly never hurt Donald J. Trump. He was democratically elected President of the United States, for crying out loud!
The one place citizens have struck back is in Trump’s wallet, and keyboard warriors across our great nation have utilized their preferred way of retaliation: negative Yelp reviews.
NPR has conducted a study that showed since Election Day, Yelp reviews at Trump properties have turned increasingly negative. One-star reviews nearly tripled since Nov. 8, 2016 and Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, 2017. Five-star reviews have fallen by nearly half. The report finds that negative reviews have exceeded positive reviews by a factor of six to four.
Now, is there a chance that some of these reviews weren’t legitimate accounts of experiences at Trump’s businesses, but rather fake reviews motivated by politics? A thousand percent yes. But seeing that the company has raised prices—such as doubling the initiation fee at The Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach to $200,000—a few unenthusiastic reviews probably won’t affect Trump’s bottom line.
For its part, Yelp has been actively weeding out fake reviews, both negative and positive. Yelp’s page for The Mar-A-Lago property, which currently sits at a 1.8 star rating, is currently undergoing an “active cleanup”—meaning it’s being cleaned up for hilarious but clearly made-up reviews, such as these: