Texas man who allegedly stole Trump supporter’s ‘Make America Great Again Hat’ indicted

A video of the incident shows the man throw a drink at the teenager wearing the hat

Mythili Sampathkumar
New York
Friday 31 August 2018 18:11 BST
Comments
Texas teenager attacked for wearing Make America Great again hat 2

A Texas man has been indicted for allegedly stealing a ‘Make America Great Again’ worn by a supporter of Donald Trump.

A grand jury has indicted Kino Jimenez, 30, on a theft charge for the July 2018 incident at a fast food chain.

Mr Jimenez’s trial is set to take place on 19 October.

The incident at the San Antonio, Texas, Whataburger location was partially caught on camera.

The video, made by 16-year-old Hunter Richard, allegedly showed Mr Jimenez pulling the famous red hat off the teenager’s head and then throwing his drink towards him.

Mr Jimenez appeared to oppose the teenager’s support of the president, muttering a few times.

“You ain’t supporting s***,” Mr Jimenez can be heard saying fairly clearly.

CCTV released of man wearing MAGA hat who allegedly pushed a Mexican man onto the subway tracks

The incident took place on 4 July 2018 and police used the video to track down and arrest Mr Jimenez on 6 July.

He was released the same day on $5,000 bond.

Police returned the hat to the teenager and Mr Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr got involved, via Twitter.

He tweeted on 5 July: “This is disgusting and disgrace. No one should feel unsafe supporting their president”.

He also said he would send Hunter a new ‘Make America Great Again’ hat, signed by the president.

The teenager told Fox News: “I support my president and, if you don’t, let’s have a conversation about it instead of ripping my hat off. I just think a conversation about politics is more productive for the entire whole rather than taking my hat and yelling subjective words to me.”

Mr Jimenez’s alleged motivation is unclear but the president has come under daily fire for his remarks and policies targeting minorities and immigrants, particularly near the Texas-Mexico border.

If convicted, Mr Jimenez could face up to two years in state jail but since he has no prior felony convictions could also face probation or deferred adjudication.

Several right-wing Twitter users had blamed House Democratic Representative Maxine Waters for inspiring the incident.

The week prior to the alleged theft, Ms Waters had said during a rally: “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.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in