NEW YORK (AP) – It’s not easy being Trump these days. Just ask the people at Trump Tobacco in California, Trump Travel in New York, Trump Memorials in Nebraska and Trump Chiropractic & Acupuncture in Kansas.
None of these and dozens of other similarly-named businesses across the country have any connection to a certain presidential candidate known for putting his name on just about everything. But that hasn’t stopped them from getting swept up in the campaign and Trump’s frequent firestorms over immigrants, women, abortion or nuclear war.
Most aggravating, they say, are the questions from the politically curious about whether they are related to their namesake, supporting him or getting any kind of boost or hit from the Trump mystique.
“I chose the name Trump 10 years ago, thinking, he’s a rich guy with a lot of buildings, so maybe I’ll get something out of his name,” says Mohammad Yousefi, owner of Trump Tobacco in Huntington Beach, California.
Now he wonders what he was thinking. His strip mall storefront that sells mostly cigarettes and cigars has been struggling lately, a downturn he can’t say for sure has anything to do with the Republican front-runner.