He blew the whistle on Trump's Truth Social. Now he works at Starbucks.

[ificandream]

Last edited Sat Apr 29, 2023, 02:19 PM - Edit history (1)

The former high-ranking executive of Trump’s media company says he’s shared 150,000 internal documents with federal investigators. Many of his new strip-mall coworkers have no idea who he is.

Washington Post

SOMEWHERE IN NORTH CAROLINA — About six months ago, Will Wilkerson was the executive vice president of operations for former president Donald Trump’s media business, a co-founder of Trump’s Truth Social website and a holder of stock options that might have one day made him a millionaire.

Tech is not your friend. We are. Sign up for The Tech Friend newsletter.
Today, he is a certified barista trainer at a Starbucks inside a Harris Teeter grocery store, where he works 5:30 a.m. shifts in a green apron and slip-resistant shoes, making Frappuccinos for $16 an hour.

“It’s an honest day’s work,” he says, sitting near the flower kiosk of the supermarket in a North Carolina suburb, which he asked not be named due to fears of harassment. “I love what I do.”

Wilkerson, 38, has become one of the biggest threats to the Trump company’s future: a federally protected whistleblower whose attorneys say has provided 150,000 emails, contracts and other internal documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission and investigators in Florida and New York.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/04/29/truth-social-wilkerson-starbucks/

[hippywife]

1. I just love how when someone asks to remain anonymous...

news orgs do every single other thing they can to actually pinpoint the person's identity.

Today, he is a certified barista trainer at a Starbucks inside a Harris Teeter grocery store, where he works 5:30 a.m. shifts in a green apron and slip-resistant shoes, making Frappuccinos for $16 an hour.

“It’s an honest day’s work,” he says, sitting near the flower kiosk of the supermarket in a North Carolina suburb, which he asked not be named due to fears of harassment. “I love what I do.”

[ificandream]

2. He outed himself.

"Wilkerson last year publicly accused Trump Media and Technology Group of violating securities laws, telling The Washington Post he could not stay silent while the company’s executives gave what he viewed as misleading information to investors, many of whom are small-time shareholders loyal to the Trump brand."

[hippywife]

4. Okay, so he asked that his location remain anonymous.

Same applies.

[brooklynite]

5. A supermarket in a suburb...

That narrows it down.

[dalton99a]

3. Kick

Wilkerson says he enjoys Starbucks: He gets to talk to nice people, likes his co-workers and doesn’t have to worry about Trump screaming at him through the phone. “I’m proud of what I do, no matter what it is,” he said. “Nothing’s beneath me.”

After a Post journalist took photos of Wilkerson at work last week, though, some of his co-workers began Googling his name and coming up to congratulate him and cheer him on. “Now most of the store knows my story,” he said.

[marble falls]

6. He's doing the right thing. For the right reasons. Whats all the nitpicking about???

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

7. A while back I got a paralegal degree at my local community college.

One of my classmates worked at Starbucks while taking the classes. Afterwards, she discovered she made more as a barista than she could as a paralegal, so guess what job she kept?