An Arizona man said he was assaulted recently while wearing one of President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) hats.
Jonathan Sparks said he was walking in downtown Tucson, Ariz., wearing one of Trump’s signature red campaign hats and holding a pro-GOP sign before last week’s midterm elections when he was attacked, KVOA News 4 reported Tuesday.
{mosads}“I felt a very strong grasp on my hat. It pulled me back and grabbed a lot of hair,” Sparks said. “The assailant jumped onto my ankle from behind and so I, not knowing my ankle was broken into four pieces, I turned around to grab and take the hat back.”
Sparks told the TV station that he and the assailant both fell to the ground.
“Then I heard the words Hitler, Nazi and Trump. He was shouting things like that,” Sparks said. “He came over the top of me and over and over again, he hit me.”
Bystanders ran over to pull the attacker off Sparks, holding the assailant to the ground until police arrived.
The Tucson Police Department told KVOA that the unidentified man was arrested for assault.
Sparks spent 20 hours in the hospital and has been recovering from foot surgery.
He said he probably wouldn’t have been attacked if he was carrying an anti-Trump sign, “a rainbow sign, or I was a black guy which then, I think there would be a sea of reporters here.”
Sparks said he was walking around with the hat and sign to make a statement because he believes Trump is a “fantastic president.”
“I think that intolerance to his ideology was the flame,” Sparks said of the attack.
He said that although he was attacked by an “evil man,” he was grateful to the people who helped him.
“There were people who pulled him off, paramedics who stayed with me, there is a police officer that protected me,” Sparks said.
Altercations surrounding people wearing MAGA hats have made national news ever since Trump took office.
A man was arrested in San Antonio in July after a viral video captured him harassing a teenager wearing the hat at a fast food restaurant. The teenager, Hunter Richard, later received a new hat signed by the president.