Trump fans look for safe spaces with an app avoiding 'MAGAphobic' restaurants

Donald Trump supporters are turning to a Yelp-like restaurant review app in search of safe spaces.

Dubbing the society-wide repulsion to the president's signature red hats as "MAGAphobic," Trump fans are using the app "63red Safe" as a guide to conservative-friendly restaurants. The Daily Beast reports that the app's users rate businesses based on if the owners "make political social media posts" and if customers are allowed to carry weapons.

63red Safe founder Scott Wallace told the Daily Beast that he's "trying to position it as an everyday 'where can I go to eat safely' app" — similar to the Green Book that African American drivers used during the Jim Crow era to determine what establishments were safe, except it's to protect people from name-calling and getting their hats taken, not keeping them safe from hate crimes.

Instead of reviewing service and menu items, the app prompts its users to answer four questions, including "Does this business serve persons of every political belief?" and "Will this business protect its customers if they are attacked for political reasons?"

Citing the 2020 election and conservative fears of anti-fascist activists, Wallace is stressed about "the rise of the socialist goon squad." Instead of just looking for pro-Trump spaces, Wallace told the Daily Beast that the app seeks non-political spaces that won't oppose conservative politics.

(He didn't acknowledge in the Daily Beast report how modern "conservative politics" often endorse the systemic racism and bigotry of Trump's values, and why business owners would be opposed to them.)

Since its launch earlier in March, 63red has gained 5,000 reviews. It's part of a series of apps named "63red" that includes a messenger service and a news aggregator.

Wallace notes that 63red's mission is "not yet another Trump dating cite," considering the massive data leak immediately after Donald Date's launch.

"This is not yet another social network," Wallace explained.

As the Daily Beast points out, although viral videos show customers slapping drinks out of MAGA hat-wearers hands, "it's not clear whether Trump supporters are really so targeted in public that they need an app to tell them where they'll be safe." It's difficult to compare Sarah Huckabee Sanders being asked to leave a restaurant to actual hate crimes related to race, religion, sexual orientation and ethnicity, which have gone up since Trump's inauguration.

It's especially baffling, considering the president's toxic statements about women, people of color, immigrants, people with disabilities, and other marginalized groups, that 63red users would want to seek out businesses that are complicit in defending Trump. And considering how much conservatives love to harp on safe spaces, Wallace doesn't seem to be particularly self aware about how ironic it is that his app is made to protect the feelings of people who defend someone who regularly mocks the concept.