It’s a sign of the times.
A Tennessee boutique owner wants landlords to remove a giant Joe Biden campaign banner from above her shop — saying it caused sales to plunge and forced her to bring a gun to work for protection against folks fired up about politics.
Angie Monahan, who owns Honey Blossom Boutique in Lenior City, was gobsmacked when she arrived at work Saturday and spotted the roughly 20-foot-by-10-foot sign hanging from the upper floor of the building where she rents her shop, she told The Post.
She blames the banner — which proclaims “Biden, Harris: Truth over Lies” — for a nearly 50-percent drop in business in her conservative small town — where former President Donald Trump got nearly 75% of the vote in 2020.
“I have worked seven years to build my business and this could destroy it all in a blink of an eye,” she said.
“We don’t need politics in business. It brings down the whole vibe of downtown,” she said. “I would feel the same way if it was a Trump sign.”
Monahan, who sells everything from handbags to star-spangled pants, said people in the town about 20 miles from Knoxville, are treating her business like the plague.
“I kept wondering why groups of women were intentionally walking beyond the store, and now I know why,” she said.
But when she asked the buildings’ owners, Ricky and Reba Miles, to take the banner down they “adamantly” refused, she said.
City officials said their hands are tied because the landlords are within their rights to hang a political sign on their own property, according to kbtx.com.
“There’s really not much we can do as far as our election sign regulation ordinance,” City Administrator Amber Kelso told the station.
“We want to be careful because we don’t want to impede someone’s constitutional rights for freedom of speech. That would go for whether it’s a Biden sign or a Trump sign or whether it’s some other political sign.”
To distance herself from the Biden banner, Monahan hung her own smaller sign declaring, “This business did not hang this sign” with arrows pointing up.
After getting the cold shoulder from apparent Trump supporters when the sign was hung up — she says she then started getting “nasty” and “threatening” messages from Biden supporters after her complaints about the banner were reported in local media, she said.
In response, she began arming herself on the job in order to feel safe.
“I do feel threatened. I’m protecting myself,” she said of her decision to pack heat.
“I’m not parking in front of the store…I make sure I’m not followed home at night.”
The sign ultimately sparked hostility at a highly politically polarized moment — just days after former President Trump was shot and wounded at a rally in Pennsylvania.
“I’m calm and I don’t like drama,” she said. “So this has been hard.”
Sales have since gone back up, likely due to media coverage, with many residents stopping by to show “support” she said.
Janette Collier — a customer who was wearing a “Liberals Suck” T-shirt as she shopped at the boutique Thursday — said she went out of her way to boost the business.
“I feel for her because the sign is imposing on her,” she told The Post. “She’s here to run a store, not a political campaign.”
Monahan said she’s now working with the town attorney to investigate whether the sign was hung too far in advance of the 2024 presidential race to be protected.
Landlord Ricky Miles didn’t immediately return a call from The Post Thursday.
