By now we've all heard of "Plaid Shirt Guy" from Trump's rally in Billings, Montana. If you haven't, he's the young man who wore a plaid shirt and stood directly behind Trump in perfect view of the cameras. His faces and reactions to Trump's speech were hilarious and ended up causing him to get removed from the rally.
If you have yet to see this gem, check out a comprehensive collection of clips, including him being kicked out, below.
For those who watched the whole thing and were looking closely, you'll see that the Plaid Shirt Guy puts on a Democratic Socialists sticker at some point during the rally.
So, who exactly is this guy? And was he scheming to upstage Trump at his own rally?
The answer is, his name is Tyler Linfesty and no, he was not planning his hilarious and very overt reactions.
Tyler is a 17-year-old high school student from the Billings area. He was randomly chosen to sit behind the president, and with his name being drawn, he also won the opportunity to meet Trump.
During Trump's typical rant about "crooked Hillary" and being the best president ever, Tyler reacted repeatedly with incredulity. As the speech progressed, he became more comfortable with his position behind the camera and even began to make eye contact with it when Trump made his most ridiculous statements.
But Linfesty wasn't trying to put on a show. He said,
"When [Trump] said something crazy, I thought 'Wow that's crazy,' and when he said something I thought was reasonable I thought, 'well, that's reasonable.' ... I took each issue individually."
Despite his efforts at remaining open-minded, Linfesty's reactions eventually caused him to get kicked out.
When recalling the moment when the woman came to replace him, Tyler said she merely told him:
"I'm going to take your place now."
He went on to say:
"I knew that I was getting kicked out for not clapping so I didn't fight it. Some Secret Service guys took me backstage and told me to wait. After about 10 minutes they told me to leave and not come back and that was it."
Regarding the sticker he can be seen sporting, Tyler said:
"I am part of the Democratic Socialists of America, but I identify as a social democrat, like Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez."
Despite the fact that Linfesty's facial expressions were not a conscious decision to protest, people everywhere are thanking him for his brutal honesty.
And though he's a little young for the next election, some people think he'd make a great replacement for Trump.
The man in plaid had his own words of gratitude for all of the support (and Twitter followers) he's received.
@elektrotimmy/X
