A man was recently kicked out of a Major League Soccer match for wearing a MAGA hat.
The incident unfolded July 26 at Energizer Park in St. Louis, Missouri, per a report on Mediaite.
“Trump is not welcome in St. Louis City SC,” Michael Weitzel said in the video.
Weitzel was approached by security with 25 minutes and asked to leave because someone filed a complaint with stadium police, the New York Post reported.
“I didn’t think there’d be any issue with wearing that to the game, but with about 25 minutes left in the game, I was basically told they’d received a complaint about my hat,” Weitzel said on KFTK’s “The Marc Cox Morning Show.”
“They told me I could either hide the hat or take it out to my car or leave. I’m not gonna take my hat off for anybody. I live in America, which is the land of the free and the home of the brave, I thought. So you do what you have to do,” he added.
If he didn’t agree to leave, he would be taken out “in handcuffs,” per Mediaite.
The stadium and MLS have guidelines on political messages in the stadium.
“I’m being asked to leave by police. I am being threatened with arrest. They are asking me to leave,” Weitzel said as he’s being led from the match, the Post reported.
“I am being evicted from the premises because of Donald Trump — because we can’t wear Donald Trump hats in public. Now I am being evicted from the premises. Trump is not welcome at St. Louis City SC club. Trump is not welcome here,” Weitzel said.
One officer said he was a Trump supporter, too, but but he needed to enforce the club’s rules, per The Post.
“He gets it, he’s just following the rules,” Weitzel said on the video.“It’s not his fault. This is the stadium’s rules here. So that’s what happens if you wear a Donald Trump hat to a St. Louis City Soccer Club game.”
Former American Conservative Union (ACU) executive director Gregg Keller of the Atlas Strategy Group posted the video on Saturday and wrote, “A man got kicked out of a @stlCITYsc game last night for wearing a MAGA hat. Security said they don’t allow political paraphernalia. Man then asked security what’s up with the constant pride flags and trans banners at the games. They didn’t like that either.”
In another post, Keller said the video “is now being looked at by the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.”
