Donut tread on me!
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is demanding Dunkin’ prove whether its sugary caffeinated drinks are safe to drink — and Massachusetts lovers of the orange and pink aren’t having it.
Even the Masshole in Chief, Gov. Maura Healey, waded in, daring the Health and Human Services bigwig to “Come and take it” in a cheeky X post after Kennedy made the announcement at a Texas rally last week.
“We’re going to ask Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks, ‘Show us the safety data that show that it’s OK for a teenage girl to drink an iced coffee with 115 grams of sugar in it,’” Kennedy said while speaking in Austin, the Boston Globe reported.
Kennedy was explaining measures the Trump administration has taken to clean up Americans’ diets, and hinted at more plans to come — including proposals to ban ingredients that providers can’t prove are safe for the public to consume.
That’s when he singled out Dunkin’ — the sixth major food group for many an upstanding New Englander — and said he doubted the beloved coffee chain would be able to meet his standards.
“I don’t think they’re going to be able to do it,” the secretary said.
Healey — who has surely enjoyed one of Dunkin’s old-fashioned donuts and a coffee or two during her long years living in New England — quickly roasted the Kennedy scoin over the call-out.
She posted an iteration of the famous “COME AND TAKE IT” flag on Wednesday, but had replaced the traditional black cannon with any good Bay State resident’s favorite artillery — a Dunkin’ iced coffee.
And many a Masshole joined her brigade against a possible Dunkin’ ban.
Some evoked their state’s history of protests involving favorite beverages.
“Maybe this regime needs to remember we take drinks VERY SERIOUSLY in New England,” one person wrote, alongside an illustration of the 1773 Boston Tea Party, where angry colonial rebels dumped cases of tea into the Boston Harbor in defiance of the English crown’s Tea Act.
Others joined in, saying the likes of “People will rise up if he does” alongside GIFs of colonists in tricorne hats while carrying torches and pitchforks. A few even posted versions of the famous “DON’T TREAD ON ME” flag doctored to read “DONUT TREAD ON ME.”
The full scope of Kennedy’s plan for Dunkin’ remains unclear, but it comes as he’s been pushing to establish an ingredient approval program called “Generally Recognized As Safe,” which evokes measures bi-partisan food-safety advocates have been seeking for years, the Globe reported.
Even while some on social media questioned why Gov. Healey was choosing to take her stand over menu items like Dunkin’s Triple Mocha Frozen Coffee — which has 165 grams of sugar in size large, according to the chain — many were thirsty to join the cause.
“Don’t you dare touch my butter pecan,” one person responded. “You hear me?”
Dunkin’ didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
