STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Home Depot is at the heart of a fiery controversy, and customers are rapidly expressing their opinions.

Angry social media users have slammed the company's Facebook page following the rise of a viral picture of a Staten Island Home Depot employee wearing a white cap that reads, "America Was Never Great" -- an answer to Donald Trump's "Make America great again" campaign.

Krystal Lake, 22, was spotted wearing the cap during her Sunday morning shift at the Forest Avenue location in Mariners Harbor.

Furious customers have ambushed the company's Facebook page with posts -- seemingly each minute this afternoon -- claiming they'll never shop at the big box hardware shop again.

The shocked patrons made statements saying they'll take their business to Lowe's; they're outraged the employee wore the hat, and that they want her supervisors to be fired.

Many of them read like this post from J.w. Binion: "So this is the image you encourage from your employees? As a U.S. veteran I am greatly offended and will never shop in your stores again - until Krystal (the girl wearing the hat) is discharged and a full apology is published to all decent Americans."

"We appreciate and understand the concerns of our loyal customers," company spokesman Stephan Holmes said. "In terms of the message, our associates are not permitted to wear items that reflect political statements.

"Unfortunately, no one on our management team saw her wearing the hat -- otherwise, they would have had her remove it immediately."

The photo appeared online sometime Tuesday night and began circulating across Facebook and Twitter. By late Wednesday afternoon, the image picked up steam.

In addition to its Forest location, Home Depot has two more Island stores in Clifton and Charleston.

Facebook users also posted negative reviews on the local Home Depots' social media pages.

Below is a sampling of the types of posts made on Home Depot's main page.

Looks like I'll never shop at Home Depot again.. really??? Posted by Carolynn Richards on Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Worked for the company and always shopped here spent 10's of thousands of dollars with you. Now I will never step foot in your store again. Disgusted with your company Posted by Eric Sass on Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Hat says "America was never great " I can't believe your company would allow a worker to wear this. Posted by Justine Bergen on Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Social media users were also voicing their disgust on Twitter. Below is a snapshot of some of the language and tones expressed in tweets.