New York Post reporter Dean Balsamini wore a Make America Great Again (MAGA) hat around the liberal enclaves of Manhattan and Brooklyn, New York and was cursed and condemned.
“I may as well have been wearing a Red Sox hat at Yankee Stadium,” Balsamini wrote of wearing the hat made famous by then-GOP candidate Donald Trump. “The mere sight of my cap nearly caused a riot at the historic Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street — site of the 1969 riots that launched the gay rights movement.”
“You come into a gay bar — THIS gay bar — with THAT hat!” one woman shouted.
Servers at Soho’s sceney La Esquina were shocked by Balsamini’s bright red conservative fashion statement.
“Oh my God, do you see that? Is he serious? Is he kidding me?” one waiter barked.
“My companion and I were quickly shunted to an out of sight table near a back wall,” Balsamini wrote.
“At Sylvia’s soul-food restaurant in Harlem, my server, Patrick Bros, admitted after my meal that he was taken aback by the hat, but figured, ‘whatever,’ Balsamini wrote.
But more anti-Trump tripe was sure to come.
“Don’t talk to him!” Balsamini says one man shouted as he made his way up 125th street near the Apollo Theater.
“Hipsters and trustafarians along Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg either did a double take, shot me a death stare or a snarky remark,” he wrote.
“Take off that stupid f—ing hat!” Balsamini says one “skinny-jeans-wearer sneered.”
“At high-end chapeau peddler Goorin Bros., I overheard a salesman tell his colleague, ‘I’m losing my sh–!’ as I walked in,” Balsamini recalled. “When I asked him to hold my hat while I admired a fedora, he grimaced.”
“I’m surprised nobody’s knocked that hat off your head!” Balsamini says one woman said as the two crossed paths near Central Park.
“On the sidewalk near Lincoln Center, I spotted comedian Chris Rock and asked him to join me in a selfie. He raised his palm, and kept on walking,” Balsamini concluded.
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson
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