‘Make America Great’ hat leads to University of Calgary fisticuffs

[Donald Trump supporters at a March campaign rally in Ohio don his trademark headgear. Brooks Kraft/ Getty Images]

Combine a “Make America Great Again” hat with a fist bump gone wrong and you end up with fisticuffs on the University of Calgary campus.

Two young men, one confirmed to be a student, had a scuffle on campus Friday evening, Metro reported. Both were treated for minor injuries, though not transferred to a hospital, and police don’t intend to lay charges.

The University of Calgary declined to comment, saying only that the matter was in police hands.

According to one of the two men, the whole thing began over his “Make America Great Again” hat, which student Andrew Brookman told Metro he wears both because he is a Trump supporter and in order to foster conversation on campus.

Another man called out to Brookman referencing the hat, he said, and when he walked over to him for a discussion, things quickly escalated from a fist bump into a fight.

“I’ve taken up the Donald Trump crusade because I believe that the political bullying of individuals who support any candidate is unfair,” Brookman said to Metro. “If someone wears a Hilary Clinton hat, a Justin Trudeau hat, even a Marxist-Leninist hat, they should 100 per cent have the right to express their views in a productive way.”

As a Canadian Trump supporter, Brookman is in limited company. A Forum Research poll found in April that 24 per cent of Canadians preferred Kasich as the Republican nominee for president south of the border, compared to 15 per cent for Trump. And thirty-eight percent of those respondents thought Hillary Clinton would make the best president versus 11 per cent for Trump.

A few other Canadian Trump fans have made their support known, sometimes to criticism from others who say the Republican candidate’s policies are discriminatory and divisive.

A Facebook group called Canadians For Donald Trump has about 6,000 members. And also in Calgary, a confrontation between a Trump supporter and hat wearer Matt Linder and a female student was caught on video and posted online.

But however many peers he has in Canada, Brookman likely didn’t get his contentious hat direct from the Trump campaign. It’s illegal for Canadians to financially support American political campaigns, including by buying merch.