WSU student speaks out after being attacked while wearing Trump hat: ‘This is serious’
Apr 21, 2025, 5:00 AM
A Washington State University (WSU) engineering student was assaulted while wearing a red “Take America Back” hat from the 2024 Donald Trump campaign.
The student, Jay Sani, told “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH Friday that the attack reminded him of far-Left propaganda he read online.
“He essentially grabbed my head, crushed my head on the concrete, that reminded me of some of the posts; all these weapons people would make,” he shared. “Some of these posts, they would say, ‘Crush the head of the opposition.’ And actually, what they would really say was, ‘Crush the head of the fascist.’ And when he did that, it gave me that flashback of those propaganda posts I would see. And I was like, ‘Oh my god,’ this is serious.”
Sani told Pullman Police that he was walking to a restaurant when the suspect, a WSU instructor and PhD student identified as Patrick Mahoney, grabbed the MAGA hat and threw it onto the street. After attempting to defend himself, the police reports say that Mahoney, along with a second suspect identified as Gerald Hoff, “grabbed Sani and took him to the ground.”
“Once on the ground, Mahoney grabbed Sani’s head and slammed it into the ground. Sani then moved his hands to approximately shoulder height and said something to the effect of he put his hands up to not make the fight worse. Mahoney then said ‘F**k you or f**k off’ to Sani before walking away,” the police report states.
Suspects in attack of WSU student wearing Trump hat arrested
Mohoney and Hoff were subsequently arrested. The incident was captured on video surveillance.
Sani said that while he’s happy the two have been dismissed from WSU, he has a larger message for the public.
“The bigger goal is—I wish that the entire country, I wish everybody, was nice to each other,” he said. “And I wish everyone were accepting of different beliefs and different tolerances. Because if you want to judge someone because they disagree with some stuff from you, that’s not OK. And I say that’s not OK because that hurts the country down the road. Because united we stand, divided we fall. So we have a lot of work in terms of cultural and social issues to fix, and I’ll do my part too to change that.”
Listen to the full conversation below:
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