You may have heard a story about a man allegedly being kicked out of a New York City bar for wearing a MAGA hat. That’s the narrative promoted by rightwing website Daily Caller. But it’s not what happened.
The man’s name is Dion Cini and he’s a professional troll with a penchant for politically-charged publicity stunts. He’s been kicked out of numerous restaurants and bars, and banned from Disney World among other places. He wants to be. There’s no story if he isn’t.
He contrived this incident, too.
He wasn’t ejected for wearing a MAGA hat. If it was about his MAGA hat, he wouldn’t have gotten in. In fact, he was there over an hour, was served food and several beers, and was asked to leave when he became loud and made anti-Semitic remarks, according to the owner.
All Cini had to do was tone it down. Instead, he was confrontational and refused to leave. Staff called police, and he was escorted out by the cops.
This happens all the time in bars when people get drunk, loud, and obnoxious. But in this case, the patron wasn’t drunk. It was a pre-planned stunt. Cini wanted to provoke an incident he could post on YouTube “proving” Trump supporters are discriminated against. Setting unsuspecting people up, the way Cini set up this bartender, is typical of how rightwing propagandists operate these days. If the staff in this bar didn’t the bait, Cini would’ve tried his luck in another establishment until he found someone who did. He’s a fraud, so is the Daily Caller story, and both should be viewed in that light.
Read the real story here.
Photo: Dion Cini, rightwing provocateur and stuntmeister