From Burgers to Bond - The Tragicomic Fall of Trump Burger

When you hear this story, you might think it is a script for a biting political satire: A Lebanese entrepreneur who wants to build a fast food empire in Texas under the name "Trump Burger" stumbles from one catastrophe to the next - and now he even faces deportation. Roland Beainy, who came to the US from Lebanon in 2019, claims he bought 50 percent of "Trump Burger LLC" for $65,000. His partner Eddie Hawa, founder of the original location in Bellville, sees it completely differently. Instead of a written contract, there are only vague agreements, and now he is demanding one million dollars in damages. While the courts in Fayette County are dealing with this absurd dispute, the situation escalated at a second location in Kemah near Houston. Beainy signed a lease there in January to open another Trump Burger restaurant. But already in June, landlord Archie Patterson declared the immediate termination of the lease - due to alleged violations of fire safety regulations, an unsigned addendum, and a missing $125,000 payment. In the termination notice, there was also a sentence that made the grotesque perfect: Roland Beainy had been detained by the immigration authority ICE, his green card had been revoked, and he was therefore no longer an authorized representative of the company.

Beainy spent seven weeks in custody before he was released on bond. At the same time, the US immigration authority announced that it would review the basis of his green card - a marriage to a US citizen. The officials found that there was no evidence whatsoever of a shared life. Now Beainy is waiting for his decisive hearing in November - while the restaurants he is fighting for have long borne other names. The location in Kemah is now called "MAGA Burger." The list of legal problems does not end there: A former business partner, Beshara Janho, accuses Beainy of fraud, breach of contract, and the hostile takeover of joint companies. It involves hundreds of thousands of dollars, failed visas, and broken promises. And even the Trump Organization got involved - with an angry cease and desist letter in February, in which they demanded that Beainy immediately remove all references to the Trump name.

Anyone reading this can feel the irony: A man who sells burgers under the name of a president who would prefer to expel migrants from the country is now fighting for his own right to stay - and against the lawyers of the man whose name he screwed onto his facade. It is a story that swings between tragedy and involuntary comedy. An entrepreneur dreams of great American success, but in the end he is left with lawsuits, government mail, and a shattered existence. If it were not so existential for Roland Beainy, one could laugh about it. But as it is, "Trump Burger" seems like a symbol of how quickly the American Dream can turn into a farce.

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