A man wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat was assaulted while walking in Arizona, the latest in a string of attacks against supporters of President Donald Trump.
Jonathan Sparks said that he was wearing the so-called MAGA hat while walking in Tuscon recently when he was attacked.
“I felt a very strong grasp on my hat. It pulled me back and grabbed a lot of hair,” Sparks told KVOA.
“The assailant jumped onto my ankle from behind and so not knowing my ankle was broken into four pieces, I turned around to grab and take the hat back. My hands latched onto the hat.”
The man kept hitting Sparks after they both fell to the ground.
A man wearing a MAGA hat was assaulted while walking around downtown Tucson. https://t.co/vlONO10e57 pic.twitter.com/CGvKk0xMOv
— KVOA News 4 Tucson (@KVOA) November 14, 2018
This man was attacked downtown while wearing a Make America Great Again hat and holding a sign that says “Jobs not Mobs” in support for Republicans and @realDonaldTrump
I spoke to him after his surgery. https://t.co/BvRAk29c5P— Allie Potter KVOA (@AllieKVOA) November 14, 2018
“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.”
Witnesses ran over and pulled the violent man off of Sparks and held him until police officers arrived. The Tuscon Police Department confirmed the assailant was arrested.
“I was making a statement that I personally believe that Donald Trump is a fantastic president of the United States,” Sparks said. “I think that intolerance to his ideology was the flame.”
Sparks needed to undergo surgery due to the severity of his injuries. He called his attacker an “evil man,” but thanked the bystanders who took action, the paramedics, and the police.
Other Trump Supporters Attacked
Since the time Trump announced his presidency to the present day, dozens of Trump supporters have been attacked in public, some in groups by far-left radicals like Antifa and others by individuals.
In one notable attack in Texas earlier this year, a 30-year-old man assaulted a teenage Trump supporter at a restaurant. The man was later indicted by a grand jury. The victim later received a signed MAGA hat from President Donald Trump.
In California in August, a California high school student was facing assault charges after knocking a MAGA hat off the head of a classmate and slapping a teacher who intervened in the altercation.
In July, a 17-year-old on vacation in Seattle said he was harassed for wearing the red hat.
In May, Cheesecake Factory employees attacked a man who was wearing a MAGA hat.
