Santa Rosa Trump supporter’s video captures heated confrontation over border wall slogan

Being a Donald Trump supporter on the liberal-leaning North Coast can be a lonely existence. It can even get you cussed out.

That was the experience of Nathan Morton of Santa Rosa, who received an epic tongue-lashing when he wore a provocative #Buildthewall T-shirt in his apartment complex clubhouse and recorded an ensuing confrontation with several fellow residents.

His video of the exchange, uploaded to YouTube, has received more than a half-million views and was mentioned in a recent New York Times online story about Trump supporters feeling under siege.

He said he posted the profanity-laced verbal attack against him as an example of how polarized politics have become. It received a boost when it was reposted by Milo Yiannopoulos, a right-wing firebrand and editor for Breitbart News Network.

“The whole point is to get out there, that we should be able to discuss things and be civil,” Morton, a software developer and 1998 Montgomery High School graduate, said Friday. “If we can’t talk, we’re going to fight. And I don’t think there is going to be anything good to come of that.”

Morton said the 10-minute video was recorded Dec. 2 at the Annadel Apartments on Jennings Avenue. It opens with a man and woman approaching him. The woman asks, “Are you racist? You have a shirt that says build a wall.”

The man tells him, “Don’t wear sh-t like that around here.”

Morton asks to be left alone, saying “I don’t feel like having a political discussion.”

But the two continue to press Morton on the shirt, ?bearing a message alluding to the wall that President Trump has vowed to build along the U.S.-Mexico border to clamp down on illegal immigration. The woman can be seen using her cellphone to apparently record the encounter.

In the video, Morton remains seated while the two people speaking to him pace back and forth above him, their faces and figures mostly in shadow. Their identities could not be determined last week. Morton said he did not know them, while insisting the video is real and was not staged.

An apartment manager at the complex said she received calls about the video from residents and sent out letters on privacy and free speech rights. She would not comment further.

“If they were acting .?.?. then I should get a director’s job in Hollywood right now,” said Morton, whose dozens of YouTube videos and frequent Twitter posts espouse his conservative political views. “That was pretty good acting. I would be the man if I could get people to do that.”

The video was mentioned in a New York Times piece that ran online Thursday about Trump supporters feeling under siege in Democratic-leaning states. In some extreme cases, people have been physically attacked, the story said.

No such physical violence has been reported by authorities in Sonoma County. No arrests have been made in the most high-profile case of politically fueled crime - the pre-election tagging of Cali Calmecac Language Academy, a Spanish-language immersion school in Windsor, with the words “Trump” and “Build the wall higher.”

Still, political divisions cemented in the bitterly contested presidential race have people on both sides of the contest bracing for fallout in everyday interactions. GOP officials say that is especially the case for Republican voters in Sonoma County, who are outnumbered nearly 3-to-1 by Democrats. Hillary Clinton claimed about ?69 percent of the votes cast for president in the county, while 22 percent went for Trump.

“People here do not want to be known as Republicans,” said Edelweiss Geary, chairwoman of the Sonoma County Republican Party. “They are affected at work. They lose friendships. It is really nasty.”

But others said some forms of expression go too far, like wearing a shirt bearing a #Buildthewall slogan that many contend is insensitive.

“I would find that offensive,” said Laurie Gallian, chairwoman of the Sonoma County Democratic Party. “Would I go to the point past saying I can’t endorse that or I can’t understand where you’re coming form? Verbally attacking an individual is not my particular process.”

Morton did not consider his shirt particularly provocative. He said people in Santa Rosa and the Bay Area have demonstrated their intolerance of dissenting opinions and are often confrontational with him.

“I was disappointed in the larger scope of how insular Santa Rosa has become if this new apartment complex is any indication,” Morton said.

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 707-568-5312 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ppayne.