Vet Becomes Next Victim of Anti-Trumpers, Wakes Up To Find Burned 'Trump 2020' Flag
A veteran of the Afghanistan War has apparently become the latest victim of anti-Trump sentiment spilling into actions against his supporters.
Gus Klein of Burlington, Vermont discovered someone had taken down his “Trump 2020: Keep America Great” flag from the flagpole on his front lawn while he and his wife were asleep.
The vandals then burned the flag and left its crumpled remains on his porch.
Klein told WCAX that after waking up on Sunday morning, he noticed the flagpole was lying on the ground and the flag was not attached.
“I looked on the front porch and I see some cloth on the front porch,” Klein said. “It looked like it was burned.”
The Army veteran, who served two tours in Afghanistan, said he could not tell if the flag was thrown on his porch while it was still on fire.
If it was, he said it would be all the more troubling.
“Knowing that there’s people out here who do this, there is fear in my mind and it’s not right,” the veteran told the TV station. “I should be able to come and go as I want and we should be able to sleep at night in our own property, so there is fear.”
Someone burned a ‘Trump 2020’ flag while it flew on a Vermont veteran’s lawn, he says. https://t.co/0jmi96vFnW pic.twitter.com/j6qeM9RR5e
— Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) November 27, 2018
His wife, Annmarie Klein, found the incident both disheartening and concerning.
“It does make me sad,” she told NECN as she looked at the destroyed flag. “I’m going to be 58 years old, and I’ve never seen something like this before. I’ve always lived in this area.”
“It’s crazy,” she added. “To me, that’s violent. That’s bullying. It’s scary.”
“We all get along,” Klein said of her neighbors and friends who have differing political views in the liberal-dominated city. “You agree to disagree.”
WPTZ reported that Burlington police are now looking into the act of vandalism.
McClatchy pointed out this is just the latest in a series of acts against Trump supporters.
Last month, someone burned the pickup truck of a Washington state man shortly after he placed a “Trump 2020” bumper sticker on it.
Johnny MacKay, the owner of the truck, said his destroyed vehicle had “Trump” spray painted on the side.
In July, an Uber driver told a group of congressional interns he would not serve them because two of them had “Make America Great Again” hats.
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