In the left-leaning Big Apple, it’s a fashion faux pas more fatal than walking around in sandals with socks, or strapping a fanny pack around your waist: wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat.
To see for myself, I sported the fire-engine red baseball cap worn by Donald Trump on the campaign trail in liberal gin joints and shops across Manhattan and Brooklyn.
I may as well have been wearing a Red Sox hat at Yankee Stadium.
The mere sight of my cap nearly caused a riot at the historic Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street — site of the 1969 riots that launched the gay rights movement.
“You come into a gay bar — THIS gay bar — with THAT hat!” one woman lectured as a large crowd gathered.
At Soho’s sceney La Esquina, where celebs like Julia Roberts nosh on $26 enchiladas, servers nearly lost their lunch when I showed up.
“Oh my God, do you see that? Is he serious? Is he kidding me?” one waiter gasped.
At Sylvia’s soul-food restaurant in Harlem, my server, Patrick Bros, admitted after my meal that he was taken aback by the hat, but figured, “whatever.”My companion and I were quickly shunted to an out of sight table near a back wall.
Nearby, folks were less diplomatic.
“Don’t talk to him!” a man instructed a street vendor as I browsed along 125th street near the Apollo Theater.
Hipsters and trustafarians along Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg either did a double take, shot me a death stare or a snarky remark.
“Take off that stupid f—ing hat!” one skinny-jeans-wearer sneered.
At high-end chapeau peddler Goorin Bros., I overheard a salesman tell his colleague, “I’m losing my sh–!” as I walked in. When I asked him to hold my hat while I admired a fedora, he grimaced.
“I’m surprised nobody’s knocked that hat off your head!” a mother of two scolded me as we crossed paths along Central Park West and 63rd Street. “Make America Great Again — right!”
On the sidewalk near Lincoln Center, I spotted comedian Chris Rock and asked him to join me in a selfie. He raised his palm, and kept on walking.
This article was originally published in the New York Post.