President Trump has responded to Cracker Barrel's new logo change.

It was the redesign heard ‘round the country.

When Cracker Barrel unveiled a new logo, it immediately sent right-wing commentators into a tizzy. The overalls-clad man propped up against a barrel was no longer there, nor were the words “old country store” that were displayed across the bottom of the design. The new design was simpler and sleeker, opting to just feature the company name. According to conservatives, that was bowing to the “woke” agenda.

“WTF is wrong with @CrackerBarrel??!” Donald Trump Jr. posted to X (formerly Twitter) on Aug. 20.

The redesign immediately led to trouble for the company. The company’s stocks fell, depleting the brand’s market value by millions of dollars. People immediately called for boycotts. It got so bad that the company was forced to respond on Aug. 25, admitting that the company “could’ve done a better job sharing who we are and who we’ll always be.”

Then, President Donald Trump weighed in on the design change, and the company decided to go back to its original logo – showing a complete lack of backbone in the face of scrutiny.

It wasn't just conservatives who hated the redesign. I kind of hated it, too. The logo was hideous and completely disregarded the company’s Americana niche. It was also just a logo. Logos change constantly – sometimes for the better, and other times not. The response to a simple change was completely overblown. Plus, nothing about the redesign was woke. It's not like Cracker Barrel added diversity or, gasp, inclusion.

The Cracker Barrel of my southern childhood

I grew up going to Cracker Barrel in the South. My family would stop there on road trips to shop at the general store and eat southern food. I would sit at the wooden tables, surrounded by kitschy signs and antique photographs, and try to beat the peg game that sits on every one of their wooden tables.

I was never fond of the food growing up – I would have preferred stopping somewhere with a kid’s meal that came with a toy. I still don’t seek out Cracker Barrel – I just don’t complain when my family wants to visit the one in my hometown. There’s an element of nostalgia to it that does charm me, ever so slightly – that, and I love a good pancake.

The restaurant and store evoke fond memories for me. A redesign wouldn't change that.

In fact, I thought it was for the best that Cracker Barrel was trying to keep up with the times and make its stores more inviting for all people, even if I doubted that changing the logo was a good way to get the point across.

I honestly don't know what MAGA was on about

While I agree that the new logo was awful, it was hilarious to watch the MAGA-verse have a meltdown over the change. Some pundits immediately compared the Cracker Barrel change with brands that removed harmful stereotypes from their designs, because of course they did.

“The Cracker Barrel abomination is worse, and it’s not even close,” The Federalist CEO Sean Davis said on X, responding to a post comparing the logo change with that of Land O Lakes butter. “The new logo is so dead and lifeless Democrats are thinking of running it for president in 2028.”

Even Trump weighed in on Aug. 26, saying the company should go back to its old logo. Apparently, this was enough to make the company bend the knee.

If Republicans are so triggered by a simple redesign, can you imagine what would have happened had the company actually "gone woke"? It's not as if the company was suddenly adding gender-neutral bathrooms or incorporating people of color into the new logo.

Cracker Barrel executives didn't announce they'd be giving their profits to abortion providers or even make statements against Trump. They simply updated to keep up with the times – which, apparently, worked up Republicans so much that the president had to weigh in.

It’s hilarious to me that Republicans simultaneously believe they’ve won the war on “woke” and believe that the left is still coming for them every chance they get. The GOP literally controls the White House and Congress – at least for now, conservatives have all the control. Yet the right continues to believe they are under attack, ceding ground to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives just because a country restaurant chain decided to modernize its logo. They even won this battle, in the end.

The world wasn't ending because a company decided to change its logo, even if the right acted like it was. Cracker Barrel will continue to be what it always was – a safe space for a predominantly White clientele who want to eat average-at-best southern food after being on the road all day or getting out of church on Sunday. A redesign wasn't going to change that. It just gave the right something else to be angry about while their king continues to ruin the economy.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeño on X, formerly Twitter: @sara__pequeno

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cracker Barrel's new logo was ugly. But capitulating to Trump is pathetic. | Opinion

Reporting by Sara Pequeño, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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