Office Depot Scrambles After Employee Calls Charlie Kirk Memorial Poster ‘Propaganda’

An Office Depot employee from Portage, Michigan, no longer has a job after refusing to print a poster for a local memorial service for assassinated conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, hosted by Michigan Forward.

The employee, a woman who was only ever identified as “one of the managers,” explained on camera that the store could not print a poster for the event because it was “propaganda.” The poster in question had already been paid for and featured a photo of Kirk along with the following words: “The Legendary Charlie Kirk, 1993-2025.”

Michigan Forward shared video of the exchange, along with a caption that read, “A team member ordered and paid for a poster to be printed at @officedepot so he could bring it to a vigil for Charlie Kirk tonight in Michigan. When he arrived to pick it up four hours later, the employees said they refused to print it, calling the poster ‘propaganda.'”

WATCH:

A team member ordered and paid for a poster to be printed at @officedepot so he could bring it to a vigil for Charlie Kirk tonight in Michigan.

When he arrived to pick it up four hours later, the employees said they refused to print it, calling the poster “propaganda.” pic.twitter.com/WCitioCzZF

— Michigan Forward (@MIForward_Net) September 12, 2025

“So, we came in for an order earlier,” one person could be heard saying as he approached the employee. “To print a poster for a vigil tonight.”

“Yeah, we don’t print propaganda,” the employee said before he could finish.

“It’s not propa—” he protested.

The employee nodded her head emphatically and assured him, “It’s propaganda, sorry, we don’t print that here.”

“All right, so, can we have — what’s your name?” the person holding the camera walked closer.

A nearby male employee identified himself as the “print supervisor” and the female added, “I’m one of the managers, so, I’m sort of — unfortunately, we do not print —”

“So, they say they do not print political propaganda — so this is somebody that passed away,” the Michigan Forward member protested.

“That’s political propaganda, I’m sorry —” the manager insisted.

The Michigan Forward member tried a different tack: “So this is for a prayer tonight. For a prayer vigil —”

“MmHmm, it’s still propaganda,” she repeated.

A female voice from behind the camera asked the employee to explain what made the poster “propaganda,” and the manager claimed that Kirk — who had never run for elected office — was a “political figure” and then argued that she did not have to offer any further explanation as to how that made a simple photo of him “propaganda.”

The male employee jumped in then, saying that the store manager would be in by Monday.

Video of the exchange quickly went viral, however, prompting a response from Office Depot’s corporate headquarters.

To our customers pic.twitter.com/XYlcFPpInN

— Office Depot (@officedepot) September 13, 2025

“We are deeply concerned by the incident that occurred at Store 3382 in Portage, Michigan. The behavior displayed by our associate is completely unacceptable and insensitive, violates our company policies, and does not reflect the values we uphold at Office Depot. We sincerely apologize to the customer affected and to our community for this regrettable situation,” the statement read.

It went on to reveal that the “manager” involved in the confrontation had been let go.