A Minneapolis bar shut down after performers canceled, customers vowed to boycott it and employees were repulsed to learn the owner donated $500 to former KKK leader David Duke’s 2016 Senate campaign. 
 
 Caught between those who were outraged over the donation and white supremacists who thought they could claim the bar as their own were more than a dozen employees who became collateral damage in the fallout. 
 
 Former employees, who asked not to be identified, confirmed Friday that Club Jäger was closed and the 17 employees at the North Loop bar were out of jobs. Employees were incensed when they learned about the owner’s donation to Duke, and the decision to close the business was made by those who ran it, not the owner, they said. 
 
 Club Jäger’s owner, Julius DeRoma, couldn’t be reached for comment on Friday. The backlash erupted this week after City Pages published a story about DeRoma’s political donation to Duke’s failed bid for the U.S. Senate seat in Louisiana. 
 
 Soon after, DJ Jake Rudh announced on Facebook that he would no longer host Transmission, his long-standing weekly dance night, at Club Jäger, saying he didn’t want to be in a “venue where the owner supports the likes of David Duke and his messages of hate.” 
 
 The 90s Preservation Society followed with their own Facebook post to say they were canceling their standing Thursday gig at the bar for the same reason. 
 
 Rob Callahan, a Twin Cities writer who has hosted a trivia night at Club Jäger since 2008, said he was furious when he learned about DeRoma’s link to Duke and canceled his Tuesday trivia night. 
 
 A few employees immediately walked off the job when they learned about DeRoma’s donation. Others stayed because they had families to feed, Callahan said. 
 
 As news circulated on Tuesday and social media erupted, employee inboxes filled up with notes from friends who wanted to know what was going on and angry messages from others who accused employees of being Nazi sympathizers and apologists, Callahan said. A group of men followed one employee on the street, calling her a Nazi lover and then spit on her, he said. 
 
 By Wednesday, the bar was desolate except for a few people who hadn’t heard about DeRoma’s donation and a half dozen white supremacists who made racist comments and harassed employees. 
 
 “The people working there didn’t want to keep this guy’s business operating and continue to face the harassment,” Callahan said. 
 
 Those who ran the bar decided to shutter it for good on Thursday. The former employees said they don’t know what DeRoma’s plans are for the club but they won’t be part of it. 
 
 Callahan said DeRoma rarely was in the bar and when he was, “he was really nice. No one had any idea he was of that mind-set.” 
 
 The bar’s staff was a diverse group racially and sexually — “all of whom are directly affected by the actions of David Duke,” Callahan said. “Then to find out that the guy who signs their paychecks supports David Duke, I can’t tell you how betrayed we all felt. It was emotionally jarring for all of us. And then to have the people who we thought would support us, blame us, it was pretty emotional.” ||||| If De Roma intends to reopen the bar, he'll need a new set of employees. 
 
 Sources close to Club Jäger say some staff quit shortly after City Pages first inquired about De Roma, and the $500 he gave to the white nationalist's U.S. Senate campaign last October. A staff meeting was called to inform employees of the news on Monday, and some immediately decided they couldn't work another shift at the popular Minneapolis bar. 
 
 Rob Callahan, a writer and events host who's run a weekly trivia night at Club Jäger for nine years, says when he was called in on short-notice for the Monday meeting, he assumed the bar was terminating his contract. Instead Callahan says he found almost the full roster of Jäger employees reeling from the news. 
 
 "Half the people were in tears," Callahan says, "and the other half were pretty much punching walls." 
 
 Callahan says he decided to wait one more day, to see if City Pages had sensationalized the report of De Roma's affinity for Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan. After reading the story Tuesday morning, Callahan canceled his trivia night at Jäger, just as other events organizers and performers did the same. 
 
 Subsequent news reports spread the word about De Roma, who also owns numerous properties in Uptown Minneapolis. Callahan says staff reported receiving threatening messages, and one server told of being recognized, pursued on the street, taunted as a "Nazi," and spit at. The bar's phone line was flooded with calls and voice messages disparaging both owner and employees. 
 
 Callahan says bar workers told him a small group of patrons -- people staff didn't recognize as customers from any night before -- actually showed up in support of De Roma on Wednesday night. The combined "weirdness" of those two days convinced management to open the bar one last night, then close it for good. 
 
 "Those who had stayed on stayed because they had families to feed," Callahan says, observing that employees who quit aren't eligible for unemployment benefits. 
 
 On Thursday, employees, family, and a handful of longtime regulars gathered at Jäger around 4 o'clock, Callahan says. Leftover food was collected for delivery to charity. Some people hugged, some cried, others gave farewell speeches. At midnight the non-employees left, and staffers stayed behind to close down the bar together one last night. 
 
 No one mentioned De Roma's name throughout the night, not that Callahan heard, and he says he's not aware of anyone being in contact with the owner this week, aside from De Roma's being informed that City Pages was attempting to reach him. 
 
 "[De Roma] did not reach out to us," Callahan says, "and none of us had any interest in seeing him again, and nothing good would have come of it anyway." 
 
 Callahan says he can only recall seeing Julius De Roma in the bar "three or four times" during the near-decade Callahan frequented Club Jäger. 
 
 City Pages' attempts to reach De Roma have been unsuccessful. On Tuesday, when WCCO showed up on the owner's doorstep, De Roma described his donation to Duke as a matter of "free speech" which was being "blown up beyond what it should be." 
 
 Employees started looking for other work as soon as they learned of De Roma's political connection, knowing both that the bar might not survive the controversy, and they didn't want to work there if it did. 
 
 "As far as I know, no one's secured another job yet, though I heard there have been businesses reaching out," says Callahan. "I would say that, to any businesses out there in town who need servers, bartenders, and cooks, and bar management, and want to hire people who said 'No' to working for a known racist, they should put the word out." 
 
 UPDATE: After this story published, journalist (and occasional City Pages freelancer) Tigger Lunney noted employees who quit a job are still eligible to file for unemployment in Minnesota, if the employee can demonstrate a "good reason" for leaving. Under state law, a "good reason" is defined as one: 
 
 "(1) that is directly related to the employment and for which the employer is responsible; 
 
 (2) that is adverse to the worker; and 
 
 (3) that would compel an average, reasonable worker to quit and become unemployed rather than remaining in the employment." Learn more about filing for unemployment here.
– A Minneapolis bar was forced to close after it was revealed the owner donated to David Duke's 2016 Senate campaign. Outraged to learn their boss had given $500 to the ex-KKK leader, many employees at Club Jager walked off the job, reports the Star Tribune. Several performers promised to boycott the bar, with one local DJ writing on Facebook that he couldn't condone a "venue where the owner supports the likes of David Duke and his messages of hate." Former bartender Drea Kingston tells WCCO the contribution is "vile and it’s disgusting." Jack Callahan, who canceled the trivia night he hosted, says per the Tribune that employees got angry messages calling them Nazi sympathizers. A group of men followed and spit on one worker, calling her a Nazi lover. The bar was empty by mid-week save for a few white supremacists who showed up to support owner Julius DeRoma, per City Pages. By Thursday, the remaining employees decided to shut it down for good, Callahan tells theTribune, adding that they "didn’t want to keep this guy’s business operating and continue to face the harassment." He calls the episode "pretty emotional" for the racially diverse staff. "Half the people were in tears," Callahan tells City Pages, "and the other half were pretty much punching walls." Workers felt betrayed by DeRoma, who was rarely in the bar but who Callahan says, per the Tribune, seemed like a "really nice" guy. De Roma tells WCCO his Duke donation "just basically free speech." He says the controversy was "blown up beyond what it should be." (Duke's godson was heir to the throne—until he flipped.)