Caution is always in order with a claim of hit-and-run political violence, as attention-seekers have been known to fabricate such things for their own personal or ideological reasons. As I’m sure you know.

This guy, however, is clearly not fabricating his injury unless he’s a Hollywood-caliber FX artist. “Gruesome” isn’t too strong a word to describe that eye.

He says he was targeted by a group of teenagers shouting “f*** Trump” at him.

Jahangir “John” Turan, 42, says it happened Tuesday evening on Canal Street. He was wearing the MAGA hat that he had purchased earlier in the day at Trump Tower. “I love President Trump. I think he’s doing a great job,” Turan said. He says the group of about 15 “kids” yelled “F*** Trump” and stomped on him. One of them smashed his head into a scaffold. Turan says he suffered a fracture in his cheek and a badly swollen eye. He’s awaiting an eye specialist to determine if there is any permanent damage to his sight.

“One girl flipped my hat, and then within five, eight seconds, I got pushed from the back and my face hit the scaffolding pole,” he told reporters, adding that the teens were “chanting anti-Trump stuff.” No arrests have yet been made because, he says, everything happened so fast that he couldn’t provide a detailed description of his attackers. The most remarkable part is when and where Turan says it took place. It wasn’t at 2 a.m. in a back alley somewhere. It happened at a little before 7 p.m. on Tuesday night as Turan was walking along Canal Street near Greene Street. If you don’t know lower Manhattan, pull up a map online and see for yourself where that is. It’s two blocks away from the subway station, near the Sheraton Hotel and the post office. It would have been broad daylight, in rush hour, with people around.

Are there no witnesses or surveillance videos? Clearly the guy’s been severely injured. Also, per the Post: “Police confirmed Turan filed a police report but only said he was attacked by a man who punched him in the head and fled. He did not provide details about any statement the suspect may have made, nor that he was wearing a MAGA hat at the time, police said.” Why’d he leave out those details when reporting the incident to the cops?

I wonder if Trump’s going to pick this up and get on his nemesis, Bill de Blasio, for it. Stay tuned.