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Deli Rakes in Tips With 'Mexican Wall Foundation' Jar Poking Fun at Trump

By Noah Hurowitz | September 4, 2015 11:40am
 Felipe Ortega said tips have doubled at Mike's Deli and Coffee since he put out a sign mocking Donald Trump's anti-immigration statements.
Felipe Ortega said tips have doubled at Mike's Deli and Coffee since he put out a sign mocking Donald Trump's anti-immigration statements.
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DNAInfo/Noah Hurowitz

Donald Trump is getting a little help, but not from his friends.

A Midtown deli is soliciting “donations” for a “Mexican Wall Foundation,” using the bombastically coiffed presidential candidate’s anti-immigration statements to gin up more tips from customers.

So far, The Donald has been making big bucks for the mostly Latino staff of the shop, according to its manager, who said tips have doubled since he put the sign on the tip jar last week.

“People love it,” said Felipe Ortega, who runs Mike’s Coffee and Deli at 44 E. 32nd St. between Park and Madison avenues. “Everyone thinks it’s funny, because the guy’s a joke anyway.”

The coffee stand appeared to be doing a brisk business on Friday morning, but in recent weeks tips had not been coming in as much as Ortega wanted, so he decided to get creative and poke fun at political positions he finds offensive at the same time.

Trump has emerged as an early Republican frontrunner in the 2016 presidential race by running on an aggressively populist platform, much of which has focused on the perceived harm done to America by undocumented immigrants. That included a proposal to deport millions of immigrants back to their home countries and force Mexico to pay for a wall along its border with the United States.

"He says he wants us to pay for a border wall, so I thought we would help him out," Ortega said.

The final straw for Ortega came when Trump’s security guards ejected Univision anchor Jorge Ramos from an Aug. 25 press conference after Ramos asked the tycoon a pointed question about the logistics of his deportation plan.

“Trump is really against me and my people,” said Ortega, who came to the United States from Mexico in 1991. “He wants attention, and this is the only way he can get it.”

Ortega, who scoffed at the prospect of Trump winning the race, pointed out a pragmatic drawback to a mass deportation of Latinos in a city with a large Hispanic workforce and an insatiable thirst for caffeine. 

“No one would be able to get a cup of coffee anywhere,” he said.