LeBron James Triggers Trumpers With Altered MAGA Hat
Donald Trump’s sincerest fans sometimes show their support with a signature red baseball cap, embroidered with text reading “Make America Great Again.” However, numerous parodies or alterations of the MAGA motto have shown up over the past few years. Now LeBron James has infuriated some Trump supporters by showing up in a red cap — that upon closer examination, is a call for justice for Breonna Taylor.
According to Political Tribune, James, along with several other players — Anthony Davis, Dwight Howard, Jared Dudley, Quinn Cook, Rajon Rondo, Danny Green, and JR Smith — showed up for LA Lakers’ opening game against the Portland Trailblazers wearing red hats — but they’d been altered.
View this post on InstagramBy Any Means‼️ Lets Get It 👑 #JusticeForBreonnaTaylor❤️✊🏾
A post shared by LeBron James (@kingjames) on
At a distance, the red hats might be presumed to signify support for Trump’s re-election. However, once the text is clearly visible, this illusion vanishes.
“Great Again” is marked out, and additional words have been added so that the hat now reads, “Make America arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor.”
Unhappy Trump supporters responded, demanding that sports stars stay out of politics, complaining that injustice is being linked to Donald Trump via the hats, blaming Taylor for her own death, throwing out racial slurs, and spinning the usual strawmen (such as the “black on black crime” trope). Be warned that some of the tweets shared as examples below use some offensive and harmful language.
Entitled privileged punk thug, who went to a white private school @KingJames
thinks we care what he thinks. Stick to dribbling a ball and losing championships pic.twitter.com/iY5AV6i8bx
— Mr. Hedonism (@_Sturmtruppen) August 20, 2020
@KingJames why don’t you ever talk about black on black deaths in inner cities? you only talk about what looks good to your fans and the media. please just stick to basketball
— dad (@dylanmdelorme) August 20, 2020
This clown @KingJames defacing our MAGA hat. You are not a good enough person to wear our beautiful red hat.
— tennisace2010 (@francinedeinzer) August 20, 2020
@KingJames you actually should make yourself a nice red hat that says “ I’m a stupid fucking idiot who can’t keep his mouth shut “
— mike martin (@mikemar86680023) August 20, 2020
What was? The red hat you were wearing the other day? Yes. It was. How does it feel to be a pussy ass bitch?
— Nick Marth (@nmarth) August 19, 2020
@KingJames Hey, did you know that you using that red hat just proves that you refuse to admit that these things keep happening where DEMOCRATS RUN EVERYTHING….Tell us which city that is run by Republicans has problems with black on black crime let alone any issues with police.
— Skip Baltar (@Rodeoclown911) August 19, 2020
Breonna Taylor was killed in March, when officers executed a no-knock raid on her home, despite the fact that it was not the address of the suspect they were seeking, who had in fact already been arrested. Across professional sports, players have been using their platforms to call for justice.