Flag maker James Staake told Newsmax he has been banned from advertising on Facebook after he made a hand-painted American flag with the image of former President Donald Trump on it.
Staake, the CEO of Your American Flag Store, which makes flags out of wood, spoke out on the Newsmax show, "National Report" during a Friday interview.
"Apparently, we made a flag with the image of President Trump on it," he said. "My wife hand-painted a full color portrait of President Trump on a flag."
He said a customer posted an image of the flag on Facebook and tagged the flag store in it.
"Facebook got wind of that, and that's where everything started," Staake said.
He claimed Facebook was "very vague" in its reason behind the ban.
Staake said the social media giant maintained his company violated the platform's community standards.
But an earlier appearance on the Newsmax show, "Rob Schmitt Tonight" helped turn his company around, he said.
"So when we were on Rob's show it was a miracle that we've been praying for," he said. "We got about nine months' worth of orders that night. Newsmax stepped in and kind of saved our business."
"We got about nine months of orders that one night."
But he said his company was stymied by PayPal when the flag store tried to get the money Newsmax viewers had paid.
"We found that every cent that we had taken in from the Newsmax viewers had been frozen by PayPal," he said. "They need to hold that money for 11 months. During that process, Harmeet Dhillon in the Center for American Liberty found out about what was going on. Harmeet called us and said, 'Hey, you're good at making flags. I'm going to fight for you. I'm going to take on PayPal.
"So, she straightened out most of our problems for us."
Newsmax has requested comment from Facebook and PayPal.
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Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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