Angry Motorist Threatens to "Pull a Trump" on Cyclist, Calls Him Gay Slurs
What does it mean when someone says they'll "pull a Trump" on you? An angry surfer in Corona del Mar, California, threatened a cyclist with precisely those words on Wednesday. The cyclist caught the whole encounter on camera, and the resulting video promptly went viral.
In it, the surfer — identified as Robert Lewis — gets out of his car to confront a cyclist who is, in Lewis' estimation, taking up too much of the road. The biker, meanwhile, alleges he was riding in the shared lane, which would be completely legal. He invites the cyclist to "fuck with [him]," he calls the cyclist a "queer," he threatens to hit the cyclist, he mocks the cyclist's size. And then Lewis says this:
"If there wasn't any witnesses, do you know what I'd do? I'd pull a Trump on you."
The cyclist cites vehicle code 21760, otherwise known as the "Three Feet for Safety Act." Lewis continues to taunt the cyclist, but refuses to disclose his name: "My name is your worst enemy, you fucking short little fucking faggot," he responds. "You're a fucking dead man walking."
Lewis cleaves hard to the cyclist's stature as an insult: "small guy," "short little guy," "tiny little man." It's a classic schoolyard bully approach to harassment, which Trump has applied to his opponents ("Little Marco" Rubio; "Crooked Hillary" Clinton; "Lyin' Ted" Cruz) with questionable success.
After the video went viral, Lewis became embarrassed. He apologized "for using the words that [he] used" to a local CBS News reporter. In the same breath, he called himself a "knucklehead," and blamed the whole thing on being "an old surfer."
"Bullies for Donald Trump" would be a more apt slogan than "Make America Great Again."