STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.

Video Skit

Did the owner of an eatery prevent a woman from entering the business because her "Trump 2024" shirt was "a little issue for our facility"? No, that's not true: The owner of the TikTok account that first posted the video that depicted this supposed encounter told Lead Stories that "it was a fake video!" and "a silly TikTok." The account frequently posts skit-and-prank videos and has since removed the video. The videomaker earlier posted on Facebook that "it was not true it was a skit!"

The video was first posted by the TikTok account @ttsturgis, but can no longer be seen there. The video (archived here) was reposted on TikTok on September 12, 2024.

This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:

(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri Sep 13 16:48:59 2024 UTC)

Lead Stories contacted @ttsturgis for further information about the video. In a September 13, 2024, email to Lead Stories, the account holder responded that "[t]he video is not real it was a skit ..." Neither the owners of the cafe, nor the husband of any owner (described in the video as a sheriff) were involved, she indicated:

The video is not real it was a skit and the owners are not a part of it and the owners are not a police officer it was a fake video! The little cafe has nothing to do with it. It was a silly TikTok and no one's getting kicked out no where. The restaurant is closed permanently. I did not mention the restaurant in this video. The video is no longer up. We have this resolved and i appreciate if you don't post any video or photo of the video!

Lead Stories earlier published a screenshot of the video as a standard part of its fact-checking procedure.

Toward the end of the video, at approximately 00:57, the logo for The Little Cafe can be seen on the storefront. Using the address numbers on the glass door and additional information from the @ttsturgis TikTok account, Lead Stories located the restaurant.

The Little Cafe's Facebook page was not up to date; its last public post (archived here) was on May 22, 2022. The angry comments for this post on Facebook were recent, however, and referred to the video's storyline.

One comment included a link to a post on X (no longer live) that implied the video depicted an actual event, while another said, "Boycott this restaurant."

The post on X was archived and is pictured below. It shows a post by Mila Joy @MilaLovesJoe. The post was captioned:

Lady DENIED access to a restaurant because she was wearing a Trump shirt.

(Source: Archive.today screenshot taken on Fri Sep 13 17:51:11 2024 UTC)

Also included in the Facebook search results for "The Little Cafe" was a public post responding to the outcry against The Little Cafe that stemmed from Mila Joy's post.

Lead Stories captured a screenshot, which is pictured below. The post is no longer publicly visible and was not archived. The post reads:

Hey guys the skit that was made had NOTHING TO DO WITH THE LITTLE CAFE! Disregard this lady's post because it is not true it was a skit!!!

(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Fri Sep 13 16:05:27 2024 UTC)

Lead Stories also emailed a former employee of The Little Cafe about the video. The person, who requested we not identify them by name, knew who had shot the footage. The person emailed on September 13, 2024:

My two sisters do skits in our hometown, the restaurant has been closed as of August 25th, they did not mean to have the Little Cafe logo in the video. It was made for entertainment and only

Additional Lead Stories fact checks of skit-and-prank videos can be found here. Our fact checks of claims surrounding the 2024 U.S. presidential election can be found here.