Trump surprises Florida restaurant owner struggling to stay open, encourages diners to ‘keep it going’

A Florida restaurant owner struggling to keep the doors open in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic received a surprise message of support from former President Trump.

“I would like to ask everyone to pitch in and help save Harry and the natives. It’s a special restaurant, a very special place. People love it. It’s been around for a long time. It’s been a very long time. But it has fallen victim to the economy of Kamala Harris and Joe Biden,” Trump told owner Harry MacArthur in a recorded message Friday on “Fox & Friends.”

“We have to keep the good ones open, especially when it comes to Florida. Florida is a very, very special place and this is a very, very great restaurant. So Harry and the natives, keep it up. We love it. And you will be there for a long time.

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“Fox & Friends” co-host Steve Doocy hosted the Harry and the Natives show in Hobe Sound, Florida, on Friday alongside owner Harry MacArthur. (Fox News)

Co-host Steve Doocy hosted the show Friday from the crowded Hobe Sound restaurant after MacArthur wrote on Facebook that he would have to close if something didn’t change by Oct. 12.

However, the community rallied behind MacArthur and supported a GoFundMe set up by his son Wyatt.

MacArthur called the response from Trump and the community “overwhelming.”

“It turns out everyone cares,” he said.

The restaurant has been owned by the MacArthur family for 72 years. Although the company was originally run by his parents, MacArthur reopened the company as Harry and the Natives after his father’s death in the 1980s.

MacArthur’s company was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2021, but after a “Breakfast with Friends” segment, the company was able to hold on. But the financial struggle wasn’t over yet.

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“Fox saved us back then. Fox and Steve Doocy saved us and we spent the next six months doing that and then everything else. And then the economy continued to go downhill and everything else,” Macarthur told co-host Steve Doocy.

“It’s like a nationwide thing. There will be no family restaurants there.”

The latest 7News/Suffolk University/USA Today poll shows the economy and inflation remain the top issue among voters at 34%. Since the Biden-Harris administration took office in 2021, prices in the Sunshine State have increased 21.7%.

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