Julie Masino and Donald Trump know how to excite people. Whenever they perceive a psychological problem amongst their captive audience or negative news about their respective brands, they stir up the pot. They realize their “customers” must remain loyal, so what better way to keep them loyal than to give them a strong jolt of fear and dread?
Most of us have heard of Donald Trump and his uncontrollable desire to not only stir up the pot but also make himself the center of attention. He is like the man attending a funeral who becomes jealous because the corpse is getting all the attention. He works harder than anyone in history to keep his base addicted to his patented excitement scam. Whenever there is a hint that a lone supporter in Iowa might lose faith in him, he is up at 3 am tweeting about a conspiracy by the 95-year-old George Soros to manufacture fake ballots or to import 100,000 immigrants from Venezuela. He makes the Energizer Bunny look like a snail.
But who is Julie Masino? She is the CEO of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store. Despite the internal warning from several key shareholders, on August 19, 2025, Masino announced that Cracker Barrel would change its logo. Long-time patrons of Cracker Barrel were both stupefied and outraged. Cracker Barrel is known for its conservative, 19th-century look and feel. Why would the CEO want to make a significant change? Conservative media seized on the excitement and predicted that the Cracker Barrel logo change would be akin to the New Coke blunder by Coca-Cola in 1985. Cracker Barrel was doomed.
Sure enough, like Trump’s April 2, 2025, Liberation Day, the stock market did not respond well to Cracker Barrel’s action. Cracker Barrel’s stock price fell. Conservative media reported that their customers were beginning to boycott Cracker Barrel. The anger in the conservative world hit like a sudden earthquake.
Only ten days later, Masino announced that the company would keep the old logo and interior restaurant décor. Suddenly, the share price increased, and customers returned to their favorite restaurant. No harm, no foul. The entire incident did not result in any concrete changes. No signs or logos were changed. No cracker barrels were removed. It was the same old, same old Cracker Barrel.
Masino pulled a Trump-style excitement scam. Cracker Barrel’s stock had fallen from $122 per share in 2021 to $35 in 2025. Masino needed to excite her customer base and Wall Street. In the style of the master of excitement himself, she created a captivating, yet false narrative. She wanted to draw attention to herself and her tired, conservative brand image. Her not-so-secret biscuit recipe for corporate and personal success was to threaten to change the logo of a conservative icon.
Like Trump’s excitement scams, there is more to the story than just the false narrative. Stock watchers noticed some unusual buying activity just after Masino announced the logo change on August 19. While the stock price was falling, someone began to buy a large number of Cracker Barrel shares. Hum, I wonder who that could be? Unless the Trump-led SEC is in on Masino’s excitement scam, look for them to investigate everyone connected to Masino for insider trading violations.
Masino, like Trump, is a master of excitement. Like a dog owner who wants to draw their dog’s attention away for a moment, all that’s necessary is to yell, “Squirrel.” Moreover, like Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff policies, Masino can break something and then become the hero by fixing it! They are like pyromaniacs who set fires and then rush to the scene to heroically put them out. The following is the celebratory excitement found on Fox News. Even detractors have to admit, Masino and Trump are great con artists.