The White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, claimed on Saturday that she was thrown out of a restaurant because she works for Donald Trump. 
 
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 Social media erupted, with some lavishing praise on the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, for taking a moral stand. Others sympathetic to the president urged a customer boycott. 
 
 “Last night I was told by the owner of Red Hen in Lexington, VA to leave because I work for POTUS and I politely left,” Sanders posted on Twitter. “Her actions say far more about her than about me.” 
 
 The press secretary added: “I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so.” 
 
 Her father, Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, candidate for the Republican presidential nomination and strong Trump supporter, responded to her tweet by writing: “Bigotry. On the menu at Red Hen Restaurant in Lexington VA. Or you can ask for the ‘Hate Plate’. And appetizers are ‘small plates for small minds’.” 
 
 The Red Hen did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday but Stephanie Wilkinson, the owner, told the Washington Post Sanders had already been served when she approached the press secretary and asked her to step outside. 
 
 The restaurant has certain standards I feel it has to uphold, such as honesty and compassion and cooperation Stephanie Wilkinson, Red Hen 
 
 “I was babbling a little, but I got my point across in a polite and direct fashion,” Wilkinson said. “I explained that the restaurant has certain standards that I feel it has to uphold, such as honesty and compassion and cooperation. I said, ‘I’d like to ask you to leave.’” 
 
 Sanders, Wilkinson said, replied: “That’s fine. I’ll go.” The press secretary walked out and others at her table followed. Wilkinson said: “They offered to pay. I said, ‘No. It’s on the house.’” 
 
 
 
 The restaurant owner expressed no regrets, telling the Post: “I would have done the same thing again. We just felt there are moments in time when people need to live their convictions. This appeared to be one.” 
 
 Members of the Trump administration are facing a fierce backlash over the policy that has seen more than 2,300 children separated from their parents at the southern border and tarnished America’s reputation around the world. 
 
 Sanders’ banishment comes after Stephen Miller, a senior White House adviser responsible for its “zero-tolerance” immigration policy, and Kirstjen Nielsen, the cabinet member responsible for enforcing it, were reportedly heckled and hounded out of Mexican restaurants in Washington. 
 
 Sanders has been notably reluctant to answer questions on the issue. Monday’s White House press briefing was delayed by four hours so Nielsen could fly back from New Orleans to face reporters instead. There were no briefings over the next four days, which is highly unusual. 
 
 
 
 That did not spare Sanders the wrath of restaurant staff. Jaike Foley-Schultz, who claimed he was a waiter at the restaurant, wrote on Facebook: “I just served Sarah Huckabee Sanders for a total of two minutes before my owner kicked her out along with seven of her other family members.” 
 
 Brennan Gilmore, executive director of the progressive group Clean Virginia, tweeted a photo of a handwritten note apparently from the restaurant that includes: “86 – Sara Huckabee Sanders.” The number “86” is industry slang for “throw out”. 
 
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 Supporters and opponents of the administration swung into action with reviews on the restaurant’s Facebook and Yelp pages. Some gave it one star, others awarded it five. Twitter users traded blows over whether the incident was comparable to the case of a Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple, which went all the way to the supreme court. 
 
 Michael McNamara Sr posted on the Red Hen’s Facebook page: “Better not speak while you’re there because if the staff disagrees with you they will toss you out. Why bother with the hassle? Plenty of real restaurants who serve everyone.” 
 
 Sapphire Cianfriglia wrote: “I appreciate how you decided to take a moral standing against an administration that is essentially emulating Nazi Germany (locking up children, letting white supremacists march freely in the streets, etc).” 
 
 The Trump administration is not the first to get an icy reception on the Washington foodie scene. Former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld once took his family to Buck’s Fishing & Camping, only for co-owner and chef Carole Greenwood to declare that she would not serve “a war criminal”. 
 
 Sanders has been reported to be planning to leave the White House, although she denied that was so. ||||| A tweet by the White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, about her ejection from a Virginia restaurant on Friday broke federal ethics rules, a leading expert said. 
 
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 On Saturday, Sanders posted: “Last night I was told by the owner of Red Hen in Lexington [Virginia] to leave because I work for POTUS and I politely left. Her actions say far more about her than about me. I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so.” 
 
 Walter Shaub, federal ethics chief under Barack Obama and briefly Donald Trump and now a fierce critic of the administration, responded: “Sanders used her official govt account to condemn a private business for personal reasons … she can lob attacks on her own time but not using her official position.” 
 
 The controversy came at the end of a week of fierce debate over a Trump policy which mandated the separation of children from their parents when such families entered the US illegally. 
 
 Between April and early June, according to federal statistics, more than 2,300 children were taken. On Wednesday, amid international condemnation and with even Republican supporters in Congress beginning to waver, Trump signed an executive order nominally – but not conclusively – stopping the practice. 
 
 On Saturday, groups of Democrats visited federal facilities, seeking details about how the children will be reunited with their families. The Department of Homeland Security said it knew where all the children were and was working to reunite them. 
 
 On Sunday, Trump returned to the attack on Twitter, advocating the end of due process. “We cannot allow all of these people to invade our ountry,” the president wrote. “When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came. Our system is a mockery to good immigration policy and Law and Order.” 
 
 Amid the controversy over immigration, and mixed messages from the president about congressional efforts at reform, there has been no White House press briefing since Monday. Then, Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary, addressed reporters on the separations policy. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Red Hen restaurant in downtown Lexington, Virginia. Photograph: Daniel Lin/AP 
 
 Nielsen and the policy adviser Stephen Miller both found themselves confronted by protesters in Mexican restaurants in Washington. The Red Hen seats 26 and serves “inspired Shenandoah cuisine” a three-hour drive from DC. Its owner told the Washington Post Sanders was served with a selection of cheeses before she decided, following a consultation with staff members, to ask her to leave the premises. 
 
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 “I was babbling a little,” Stephanie Wilkinson said, “but I got my point across in a polite and direct fashion. I explained that the restaurant has certain standards that I feel it has to uphold, such as honesty and compassion and cooperation. I said, �?I’d like to ask you to leave.’” 
 
 Sanders, Wilkinson said, replied: “That’s fine. I’ll go.” Others at her table followed. Wilkinson said: “They offered to pay. I said, �?No. It’s on the house.’” 
 
 
 
 The owner added: “I would have done the same thing again. We just felt there are moments in time when people need to live their convictions. This appeared to be one.” 
 
 The story set off a Twitter battle between Trump supporters and opponents, many on both sides comparing it to a recent supreme court ruling that said the owner of a Colorado cake shop was right to refuse service to a gay couple, based on his religious beliefs. 
 
 Sanders’ father, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, waded in, writing: “Bigotry. On the menu at Red Hen Restaurant in Lexington VA. Or you can ask for the �?Hate Plate’. And appetizers are �?small plates for small minds’.” 
 
 Newt Gingrich, a former Republican House speaker who many blame for US politics’ descent into vitriol and schism in the 1990s, wrote: “The increasing personal nastiness toward people who work for President Trump reflects the left’s understanding that they are losing. Nastiness reflects desperation, not strength. They can’t win the argument so they use nastiness. Sad and dangerous.” 
 
 Shaub launched a series of tweets of his own. 
 
 
 
 “Sarah,” he began. “I know you don’t care even a tiny little bit about the ethics rules, but using your official account for this is a clear violation … It’s the same as if [a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] agent pulled out his badge when a restaurant tried to throw him/her out. 
 
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 “Sanders used her official gov[ernmen]t account to condemn a private business for personal reasons. Seeks to coerce business by using her office to get public to pressure it. Violates endorsements ban too.” 
 
 The Red Hen found itself at the centre of online efforts to boost or damage its customer reviews, hoax booking calls and differing opinions locally. Amid a media scrum, Tom Lomax, a local business owner, brought flowers as a show of support. 
 
 He called Wilkinson a “force of nature” and “one of the biggest drivers of the downtown” and told the Associated Press: “We support our own here, great little community we have.” 
 
 Stephen Russek, a former restaurant owner, said: “You have your political opinions, you don’t throw somebody out of your restaurant. They ought to be shut down.” 
 
 Shaub added: “There’s no ethics rule against Sarah Sanders fans being cartoonish hypocrites in defending merchants discriminating against gay people but howling when a merchant rejects a human rights violator based on her involvement in harming babies & children. Ridicule will have to suffice.”
– The little Red Hen restaurant in rural Virginia found itself squarely in the middle of a big Beltway brouhaha after Sarah Huckabee Sanders was turned away on Friday night, and now the owner gives the Washington Post the backstory. Stephanie Wilkinson was home when her chef called around 8pm to say that Sanders had walked in with a group, and wondered what to do. Wilkinson drove to the restaurant, confirmed that it was indeed Sanders, and asked her staff, "Tell me what you want me to do. I can ask her to leave." Wilkinson notes that some of her employees are gay. "They said 'yes.'" Wilkinson says she asked Sanders to step outside, and though "I was babbling a little ... I explained that the restaurant has certain standards ... such as honesty, and compassion, and cooperation." Asked to leave, Sanders said, "That's fine. I'll go." Sanders' group elected to clear out with her, and offered to pay for their entrees, which were being prepared; Wilkinson opted not to charge the group. Usually, politics aren't on the menu at the Red Hen, Wilkinson says. "I’m not a huge fan of confrontation. I have a business, and I want the business to thrive. This feels like the moment in our democracy when people have to make uncomfortable actions and decisions to uphold their morals." That business was mired firmly in controversy Saturday, with trolls of both flavors clogging the Red Hen's Yelp page (which now has two stars), its reservation line, and even shouting from the sidewalk in Lexington. The restaurant opted not to open Saturday night, writing in an email that "We would like to avoid exposing our patrons to any potential unpleasantness from outside entities."