The Republican National Convention’s corporate sponsors included the American Petroleum Institute, American Beverage Association and General Motors. But some social media posts said Starbucks, the world’s largest coffeehouse chain, decided to join the party.
“Starbucks joins the Heritage Foundation as the official sponsor of the RNC as they roll out Project 2025,” a July 17 Facebook post read. “You know what to do.”
(Screenshot of Facebook post)
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The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, was an RNC sponsor and the architect of Project 2025, a widely-discussed 900-page manual containing recommendations for the next conservative U.S. presidential administration.
But the post is wrong about Starbucks. The company did not provide financial sponsorship to the RNC. It partnered with the Milwaukee 2024 Host Committee, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group that worked with the city of Milwaukee and the Republican National Committee to ensure the event ran smoothly.
Confusion over the company’s role at the RNC arose after the Milwaukee Host Committee posted a picture on its homepage thanking its partners, which included Starbucks.
Jaci Anderson, a spokesperson for Starbucks, told The Associated Press that the company worked with the host committee to give coffee to the RNC’s first responders. Anderson also said that Starbucks will provide the same support to the Chicago 2024 Host Committee for the Democratic National Convention, which begins Aug. 19.
We rate the claim that Starbucks was an “official sponsor of the RNC” False.