This is one cold feud.
President Donald Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer has found himself in a feud not just with the press but also, incredibly, with Dippin’ Dots — the purveyor of freeze-dried ice cream found at stadiums, vending machines and movie theaters around the country.
The new press secretary — thrust into the meme spotlight on social media this weekend after a press briefing where he insisted that Trump’s inauguration drew record crowds — has intermittently tweeted criticism of the freeze-dried ice cream company over the course of five years.
But Dippin’ Dots is hoping to make amends: The company’s CEO, Scott Fischer, posted an open letter to Spicer Monday, defending the business and offering to treat Spicer and the White House press corps to an ice cream social.
“We understand that ice cream is a serious matter. And running out of your favorite flavor can feel like a national emergency!” Fischer wrote. “We’ve seen your tweets and would like to be friends rather than foes. After all, we believe in connecting the dots.”
Spicer has repeatedly argued on Twitter that Dippin’ Dots is “not the ice cream of the future,” as its tagline promises. While he hasn’t tweeted about the company since 2015, his eye-catching performance this weekend in the briefing room led Twitter users to dig up the old comments. (They also made a meme of pairing his photo behind the podium with obviously untrue facts.)
In one message, he posted a story about the company filing for bankruptcy and added “Ice Cream of the Past.”
And for a guy who doesn’t like Dippin’ Dots, Spicer was awfully disappointed when he couldn’t get some at a ballgame: “If Dippin Dots was truly the ice cream of the future they would not have run out of vanilla cc @Nationals,” he tweeted on Sept. 7, 2015.
But in the company’s letter to Spicer, Fischer assured him the company was doing just fine — writing that it’s made in Kentucky — “the heartland of our great country” — and has seen double-digit growth in sales for the last three years.
“That means we’re creating jobs and opportunities,” the letter reads, before throwing some shade: “We hear that’s on your agenda too.”
The missive ends with an invitation, and a callback to that sad day when Nationals Park was all out of vanilla.
“We can even afford to treat the White House and press corps to an ice cream social. What do you say? We’ll make sure there’s plenty of all your favorite flavors.”
