WASHINGTON – A few years ago, Jeff was working for a California bank that asked him to look into getting the business listed on a website called PublicSquare.
The bank’s leaders were big supporters of Donald Trump, and PublicSquare was an ideal place to advertise it: Its website, which bills itself as “the anti-woke online marketplace,” is a hub of tens of thousands of businesses nationwide that want people to know they align with MAGA views and oppose so-called “progressive priorities” like women’s reproductive rights and diversity initiatives. In order to list your business on the website, you first have to confirm that you will “respect the core values of PublicSquare” and agree not to “support causes that are in direct conflict with our core values.”
“For far too long, American consumers and business owners who cherish family values and God-given liberty have been overlooked by mainstream businesses,” the company’s website states. “It’s time to embrace this community of customers and merchants by providing platforms, products, and services that enrich the way of life they hold dear.”
The company also acknowledges its purpose of letting people use their dollars as political and cultural leverage. “PublicSquare is on a mission to restore the culture through the power of commerce,” its website says under a section called “Purpose with every purchase.” “This isn’t about boycotts, it’s about helping you switch to something better.”
As a consumer, PublicSquare’s website is easy to use. You just enter your ZIP code and it pulls up businesses near you that want to be publicly associated with Trump and his values. The company, which launched in 2022, has direct connections to Trump, too: Its board of directors includes Donald Trump Jr., who also is an investor.
Kelly Loeffler, President Trump’s administrator of the Small Business Administration, also was on the board until she was confirmed to her current post in February.
Jeff, who requested using a pseudonym for this story out of concerns of being targeted by Trump supporters in his community, doesn’t know if that bank joined PublicSquare. He soon left that job and went on to launch a communications firm.
Fast-forward to February 2025, when Trump is back in the White House and destroying virtually everything he touches. He’s tanking the global economy.
He’s hollowing out the federal government. It is not hyperbole to say he’s pushing American democracy to its breaking point.
Jeff, a regular user of the social media platform Reddit, started noticing people in his San Diego community posting messages desperate for ways to fight back against Trump’s recklessness. Some called for boycotting MAGA-friendly businesses but didn’t know how to identify companies that support Trump’s views. So Jeff, who had extensively researched PublicSquare at his previous bank job, tossed in a note about it.
“MAGA has made it easy for all of us to avoid their businesses,” he wrote under his Reddit name, Hour-Abbreviations18. “A couple years ago, they introduced a website – publicsq.com — to promote MAGA businesses. We can use that same tool to make informed purchasing decisions.”
“If a business is listed on the site, it’s not a fluke,” he wrote. “It’s on purpose.”
He got several responses to his post, so out of curiosity, Jeff searched Reddit for instances of people outside of his local community who were looking for ways to avoid pro-Trump businesses. He cut and pasted his spiel about PublicSquare into those threads, too.
PublicSquare, a listing of places that support MAGA values, is instead being used as a tool for boycotts among those opposed to the MAGA agenda.
