A political argument in Florida turned deadly this week when a construction worker allegedly killed his pro-Donald Trump boss and then draped an American flag over his dead body.
“A construction worker in Florida has been accused of murdering his pro-Trump boss with a trowel after a political argument on the construction site where they both worked and then throwing an American flag on the man’s body,” reports ABC News.
The suspect, 28-year-old Mason Trever Toney, allegedly stabbed his boss, William Steven Knight, Monday morning at Florida Turnpike job site, according to an emergency phone call from Toney’s co-workers. Though the exact details of the conversation between Toney and his boss have not been disclosed, the argument was political in nature.
“The Orange County Sheriff’s Office says that the murder appears related to a political dispute between the men,” continued ABC News. “Knight was a big supporter of President Donald Trump while Toney was anti-government. … When deputies arrived they found Knight’s body lying next to an excavator on the job site with a brand new American flag thrown onto the side of the victim’s body that didn’t belong to anybody on the site, according to the arrest affidavit.”
Toney’s arrest affidavit noted he was “very outspoken about his beliefs that the government is bad and out to get him.”
Toney allegedly fled the scene of the murder in a white pick-up truck before being taken into custody after crashing the vehicle amidst a police pursuit.
Since the election of President Trump, attacks on Trump supporters, primarily those in MAGA hats, have occurred on several occasions. Newsweek provided an account of these incidences that have occurred since 2016:
Terry Price has told his children and his wife they are not allowed to wear their “Make America great again” hats in public without him by their side after a man held a gun to his head for wearing the red cap.
Price, from Bowling Green, Kentucky, previously told Newsweek that he and his wife were shopping at Sam’s Club in Bowling Green wearing the hats when James Phillips, 57, allegedly pointed a Glock .40 caliber gun at Price’s face. Phillips allegedly told Price “this is a good day for you to die.” He was arrested and charged with wanton endangerment.
Following the incident, Price said some of his friends changed their party affiliations from Democrats to Republicans because they could no longer “identify with a party that has so much hate.”
“It’s just gone too far,” Price recently told Newsweek. “Republicans, conservatives and Christians need to stand up and take action against this kind of hate.”
However, while such attacks indeed illustrate the intense hatred that some conservatives face, especially at protests, that doesn’t necessarily mean walking down the street in MAGA hat will automatically be met with violence, despite the fact that some members of the media have likened them to Klan hoods. In fact, writing for Los Angeles Magazine, Joel Stein wore a MAGA hat to one of the most left-wing restaurants in Los Angeles and was pleasantly surprised that nobody confronted him.