Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Zach Witkoff, Co-Founder and CEO of World Liberty Financial, react outside the Nasdaq building after ringing the opening bell to celebrate the closing of ALT5’s $1.5 billion offering and adoption of its $WLFI Treasury Strategy at the Nasdaq Market, in New York City, U.S., August 13, 2025. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

The southern-themed Cracker Barrel restaurant chain recently came under fire from Donald Trump Jr., MAGA Republicans and right-wing media outlets for changing its logo in an effort to appeal to younger consumers. Cracker Barrel viewed the change as strictly a business decision, but MAGA angrily accused the chain of becoming "woke" — and the pressure was so intense that Cracker Barrel went back to their old "Uncle Herschel" logo, which was designed in 1977.

In a scathing late August op-ed for The Guardian, Sidney Blumenthal — a former senior adviser to former President Bill Clinton and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton — argues that far-right attacks on Cracker Barrel underscore the MAGA movement's ugly "cynicism."

"The day after (President Donald) Trump denounced the Smithsonian," Blumenthal explains, "Donald Trump Jr. took umbrage at Cracker Barrel, joining a right-wing social media mob. Cracker Barrel's sales had gone flat partly due to its creaky image, symbolized by a logo featuring a geezer in overalls seated cross-legged and leaning on a barrel, promoted as the 'Uncle Herschel' of the store's founder. At the company headquarters in Lebanon, Tennessee, the 'Uncle Herschel Memorial' features statues of 'Uncle Herschel' seated on a bench listening to a Cracker Barrel waitress. Marketing research, however, showed that the rickety ambience was off-putting to a younger suburban clientele. So, 'Uncle Herschel' was retired, the logo cleaned up with just the brand name front and center, the interiors with dark brown log cabin walls whitewashed and more brightly lit."

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Blumenthal adds," But this marketing facelift, a common corporate design 'refinement,' as it is known, was a new frontier beyond 'the last remaining segment of 'WOKE.'"

Cracker Barrel, the former Clintons adviser laments, became "collateral damage" in MAGA's culture war and was bullied into restoring its old logo.

"Whether it's the museums or the corporations — or the universities, law firms, federal departments and agencies — the attack lines of the Trump culture war and its culture warriors are the same," Blumenthal writes. "The vicious full-scale assault on the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain after the company naively wandered on to the battle zone by altering its 'Old Timer' logo exposes the cynicism of the whole operation and its ulterior motive to impose an authoritarian regime over every aspect of American society…. The White House issued an official statement announcing the restoration as if it were a decisive presidential action: 'Congratulations Cracker Barrel!'."

Blumenthal adds, "Nobel prize! 'Uncle Herschel' was back, the 'woke' conspiracy again defeated, another victory in the culture war. Today, Cracker Barrel. Tomorrow, the Federal Reserve."

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Sidney Blumenthal's full op-ed for The Guardian is available at this link.