Denial of Basic Services
An increasing number of reports keep circulating about instances where people wearing red MAGA hats have been kicked out of bars and restaurants for just wearing the hats. After attending a Trump rally in Richmond, Virginia during the summer of 2016 a family stopped into a local Cook Out burger joint for lunch but were turned away by staff because they were wearing Trump t-shirts and hats.282 After a man wearing his MAGA hat was kicked out of a bar in New York City, he sued the owner for discrimination, but a judge threw out the lawsuit.283
A 9-year-old boy in California who is a big fan of the President wanted a Trump birthday cake, but his mother said she couldn’t find a bakery that would make one for him.284 Gays want bakeries sued into bankruptcy if they refuse to bake a special cake for a gay “wedding” but think it’s okay for them to deny service to Trump supporters.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee and her family were kicked out of a restaurant in Lexington, Virginia after the owner recognized her and made them leave. When word of the incident spread, liberals celebrated it. The Washington Post even ran a headline saying, “Chasing White House officials out of restaurants is the right thing to do.”285
Congresswoman Maxine Waters then encouraged more harassment, saying, “If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd, and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”286 Soon after this, activist Laura Loomer confronted Maxine Waters in the halls of the Capitol on camera, asking her, “Where can a conservative eat at a restaurant in D.C.? Do you think it’s civil to call for the harassment? Are we supposed to sit at the back of the bus?”287 Maxine scurried away to a “members only” elevator in shock from getting a taste of her own medicine.
The Boston Globe published an op-ed that began describing how one of the writer’s “biggest regrets” of his life was not pissing in political commentator Bill Kristol’s food when he ate at a restaurant the writer worked at. He went on to urge people to tamper with Trump supporters’ food by doing what he was afraid to do, saying members of the Trump administration “have to eat,” and while the person may lose their job, (tampering with someone’s food is actually a crime) “you’d be serving America,” he said. “And you won’t have any regrets years later.”288
The Boston Globe actually published this filth, but after a growing backlash changed parts of the op-ed and added a note saying, “A version of this column as originally published did not meet Globe standards and has been changed. The Globe regrets the previous tone of the piece.”289 Even with the alterations, the title was, “Keep Kirstjen Nielsen unemployed and eating Grubhub over her kitchen sink,” and the overall message of the piece was still that people should run members of the Trump administration out of any restaurant they’re seen in. After growing shock and outrage that a major paper would publish such garbage, the Globe later deleted the article.290
The Left Encouraging Violence
In the Trump era political rhetoric from the Left has sunk to levels never before seen in modern American history. Not only are they insistent on smearing all Trump supporters as racists, but they are encouraging people to physically attack anyone seen wearing a MAGA hat in public.
During the 2016 election season many peaceful Trump supporters were assaulted as they were leaving events by rabid protesters who had gathered outside. At a San Jose rally one woman was pelted with eggs and water balloons by an angry mob and others were punched and hit with bottles as they left.291
After a 16-year-old Trump supporter was assaulted in a Whataburger fast food joint by having a drink thrown on him and had his MAGA stolen, CNN’s Marc Lamont Hill said, “I actually don’t advocate throwing drinks on people. Not at all. But yes, I think MAGA hats (deliberately) reflect a movement that conjures racism, homophobia, xenophobia, etc. So yes, it’s a little harder to feel sympathy when someone gets Coca Cola thrown on him.”292 Vox’s Carlos Maza encouraged assaulting right-wing figures as well, and hopes to make them “dread” being in public.293
Breitbart News compiled a list of violent acts against Trump supporters and detailed mainstream media reporters and pundits who approved of them and counted 639 incidents between September 2015 and November 2018.294
Just wearing a red MAGA hat in public can put you in danger of getting assaulted by some random lunatic who happens to see it. An MSNBC host even said wearing one is “an invitation for confrontation” and considers them “the modern day version of the Confederate battle flag.”295 The Huffington Post reported that, “Searching for MAGA symbolism is one of the easiest ways to notice online extremists and members of hate groups.”296 CNN’s Angela Rye said that MAGA hats are “just as maddening and frustrating and triggering for me to look at as a KKK hood.”297
An 81-year-old man in New Jersey was attacked inside a grocery store by a 19-year-old teen because the old man was wearing a Make America Great Again Hat.298 A couple shopping at a Sam’s Club in Kentucky had a gun pulled on them by a man who got triggered after seeing their MAGA hats.299 A man eating at a restaurant in Massachusetts was assaulted by a woman who spotted him wearing the hat. She was arrested for assault and it turns out was an illegal alien, so a few days after her initial arrest, she was arrested again by ICE.300 A legal immigrant from Africa living in Maryland was beat down by two other black men because he was spotted walking down the street wearing a MAGA hat.301
A group of five Asians walking down the street in Washington D.C., all wearing MAGA hats, were harassed by two black men who videotaped themselves stealing two of the hats and posted the video on Twitter to brag about what they had done. The group happened to be North Korean defectors who had escaped the country and proudly wore their MAGA hats because President Trump was making progress facilitating peace between the North and the South.302
A young woman wearing a red hat reading “Make Bitcoin Great Again” in the style of the MAGA hat was pepper sprayed right in the face by a member of Antifa while she was in the middle of doing a television interview on the campus of UC Berkeley during an event at the school.303
A man in the back of a pickup truck leaving a Trump rally in Arizona was sucker punched in the head by a protester as the truck pulled away.304 A customer eating at a Cheesecake Factory in Miami was harassed and threatened by several employees of the restaurant because he was wearing a MAGA hat.305
When Hillary Clinton was asked about civility returning to America, she endorsed the growing angry mobs saying, “You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about. That’s why I believe, if we are fortunate enough to win back the House and or the Senate [in the 2018 midterms], that’s when civility can start again.”306