'TRUMP IS A TRAITOR': Minneapolis man installs political holiday light display, and the locals love it
A Minneapolis man has installed decorations directed at President Donald Trump — and residents apparently really like it.
Tom Hoch, a 2017 Minneapolis mayoral candidate, hung a huge holiday light display on his second-story balcony Dec. 14 that reads, “TRUMP IS A TRAITOR.” The sign is more than four feet high. Hoch’s home overlooks a lake and according to the Star Tribune, people pass by along the parkway at all times of the day and night in cars, on foot or by bike.
Hoch generally decorates his home for the holidays. But this year, he decided to go in a different direction and enlisted a local woodworker to make this custom sign.
“I wanted to act on the sense of frustration about what I routinely read and see on television that’s going on,” Hoch tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “So it was out of that that I decided to try to do something that was meaningful but also had a festive touch.”
Hoch believes, according to the Star Tribune, that calling the president a traitor is not an opinion, it’s a matter of fact. “I think it’s hard to come to any other conclusion about someone who is willing to turn against this country for his own enrichment,” Hoch, former president and CEO of the Hennepin Theatre Trust, told the outlet.
The murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi pushed Hoch “over the edge,” he tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “These are people who are not even discreet,” he says of the Trump family. “They’re just overt in their attempts to use our country to their own personal advantage and I’m just sick of it.” He adds, “Trump is using our country for his own benefit. That makes him a traitor.”
So far, the feedback has been positive. “I really didn’t anticipate that. That’s not why I did it,” he says. Many people are texting him and reaching out on social media. Some are stopping to take pictures as they pass his house. And some have even asked him to keep it up year round. But Hoch said this is just for the holidays.
Hoch ran for mayor as a democrat, but he promised this isn’t about disagreeing with Trump’s republican values. “There are certainly republicans in my neighborhood…maybe many…but none of them have said anything to me. I hope they see this guy as not serving their long term interests either,” he says.
Hoch hopes he can go back to reindeer and snowflakes soon: “I would hope whoever is sitting in the oval office in the future doesn’t compel me to do this and I can go back to doing boring holiday decorations.”
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