California cafe owner to donate sale proceeds to Zohran Mamdani

Maria Rutenberg, the owner of the Chez Nous café in Redwood City, California, has announced she will donate the proceeds from the sale of her business to the campaign of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Rutenberg previously claimed she intended to use the funds to support a third term for Donald Trump, a statement she later described on Facebook as a way of “trolling liberals.” She stated she changed her position after realizing there is no legal path for a third term.

The café, which opened in 2021, had been a gathering place for conservatives and faced local boycotts in the liberal-leaning area due to its refusal to enforce pandemic-era mask mandates and lockdown orders.