Baltimore Orioles Remove Fans Who Held Banner Bearing Donald Trump’s ‘Keep America Great’ Slogan During Game
Baltimore Orioles’ security personnel removed four fans who unfurled a pro-Trump banner during Thursday night’s game, The Baltimore Sun reports.
During the 8th inning, the four fans unfurled the red, white, and blue banner, which had the words “Keep America Great” and “Trump 2020” written on it. “Keep America Great” is something of an unofficial campaign slogan for Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign, a followup to his 2016 “Make America Great Again” slogan.
The crowd was apparently not at all pleased, as chants of “Take it down!” broke out not long after it was presented.
The banner was up for a few minutes before Baltimore police and Camden Yards security showed up to remove the banner, and to escort the fans from the stadium.
Did The Sign Violate Stadium Rules?
It did. Oriole Park at Camden Yards, like most Major League Baseball stadiums, allows fans to display banners, provided they don’t obstruct other fans’ views. In this case, according to Yahoo Sports, the banner didn’t obstruct any fans’ views, but it did cover up a paid advertisement from one of the team’s sponsors.
However, the Orioles also have language in their rules that says that signs can be removed, and their bearers asked to leave, “if the content is commercial, political, and/or in bad taste according to the Orioles’ discretion.”
A “Take it down” chant broke out at Camden Yards as this was unveiled in the eighth inning tonight. The banner has not been well-received. #Orioles pic.twitter.com/Orr7rqn8im
— Jon Meoli (@JonMeoli) August 2, 2019
Trump And Baltimore
Donald Trump and the city of Baltimore haven’t been seeing eye-to-eye of late. Last weekend, as The Baltimore Sun reported at the time, Trump and Maryland Representative Elijah Cummings, a Democrat, got into a war of words after Cummings called Trump a “brutal bully.” Trump responded that Cummings’ 7th District, which includes parts of Baltimore, is “disgusting, rat and rodent infested.”
Baltimoreans came to the city’s defense, and the hashtag #WeAreBaltimore trended at no. 1 on Twitter for a while on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Thursday’s game in which the banner was unfurled was the first Orioles home game since Trump made the anti-Baltimore tweets.
Pro-Trump Insignia Will Get You Kicked Out Of Other Places, Too
As Newsweek reported in March, ever since Trump was inaugurated, the news has been filled with stories of people being asked to leave various establishments for wearing pro-Trump garments, usually the red-and-white “Make America Great Again” hat.
In fact, it took a court decision to settle the fact that it’s okay for business owners to ask people to leave because of the political beliefs expressed on their clothing. Specifically, a judge ruled that political supporters are not one of the “protected class”es of people who cannot be denied in places of public accommodation.
