A security guard hit an anti-Donald Trump protester in the face Thursday outside Trump Tower in New York City, where the billionaire held a press conference announcing that he’d signed a loyalty pledge with the Republican National Committee.
Protesters held signs that read “Go back to Europe” and “Make America racist again,” a play on Trump’s cribbed-from-Reagan campaign slogan. Some were dressed up like members of the Ku Klux Klan in white hoods and robes.
Protester: “We are making fun of Donald Trump” pic.twitter.com/akdlrh5hqZ
— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) September 3, 2015
Things got heated, though, when a guard ripped a banner out of the hands of one protester. The protester followed the guard and grabbed him from behind, prompting the guard to hit him in the face.
A second security guard, who appeared to be the same man who escorted Univision anchor Jorge Ramos out of a Trump press conference last week, restrained the protester while the other guard went inside Trump Tower with the banner.
In an interview with NY1 Noticias, the protester, Efraín Galicia, compared the way the guards treated him to the way they treated Ramos, who was booted from the presser for asking a question about immigration without being called upon.
“They’re acting exactly like their boss Donald Trump,” Galicia, speaking in Spanish, said of the security guards.
Trump’s campaign told The New York Times that the guard was “jumped from behind” and said they would likely press charges. The campaign would not tell the newspaper whether the security guard was the same man who escorted Ramos out of the previous press conference.
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