MONMOUTH COUNTY, N.J. — Heated discussions continue to unfold in Monmouth County after reports of a politically charged online “watch list” targeting local small businesses surfaced, prompting backlash, debate, and heightened partisan tensions ahead of Small Business Saturday.
The controversy began when an alleged list of businesses publicly or privately supporting former President Donald Trump was circulated online, purportedly to encourage boycotts. The list reportedly included restaurants, contractors, and other small businesses within the area. While the list has since been scrubbed from its original platforms, remnants of it continue to circulate among online forums, fueling outrage from both supporters and critics.
Local officials, including members of both parties, condemned the list’s creation. “Supporting local businesses should be about strengthening our community, not dividing it,” said a Monmouth County GOP representative in a statement, echoing bipartisan calls to avoid political targeting. Democratic State Senator Vin Gopal has also urged unity, urging residents to “support small businesses no matter their politics.”
Gopal is now being targeted by leftwing radicals on Reddit as a ‘sellout’.
Critics of the list argue it unfairly singles out small business owners based on political beliefs. “Boycotting is one thing, but when lists like this are shared online, they can quickly lead to harassment, doxxing, and threats, which is unacceptable,” said one community member in an online post in the r/NewJersey subreddit.
Proponents of the effort have defended the list as a consumer’s right to make informed choices about where to spend their money. One online commenter suggested compiling a broader, nonpartisan database identifying businesses with political affiliations of all kinds, so “residents can make their own decisions.”
Another subreddit is asking if MAGA supporters should do the same and start their own business ban list.
The conversation went as far as targeting people’s home’s with Trump flags and accusing local businesses of ‘covert’ Trump support by ‘hiding MAGA material’ behind their counters.
After the radical Facebook group “Indivisible Blue Two Rivers” was disbanded and local Democrat party officials connected to the group went dark on social media because of alleged ‘threats’, the radical left-wing Democrats on Reddit are trying to compile their own list of “MAGA businesses”.
Many small business owners were not concerned about the boycotts and threats, as those calling for the boycotts are not even customers of their businesses.
“These people don’t even have jobs,” one Monmouth County business owner told Shore News Network. “Come boycott all of us. They haven’t realized yet, when they boycott, they are advertising our business to the people we actually want as customers.”
This issue has drawn national attention, with similar debates playing out across the country as partisanship increasingly spills into consumer choices. Some argue such boycotts harm local economies, while others see them as a legitimate exercise of free speech and economic choice.
The Monmouth County uproar reflects a growing national trend of politicized consumerism and the challenges it presents for small business owners navigating an increasingly polarized environment.
