California man hospitalized with brain bleed after being beat up by neighbor over Trump banner: report

John Muder told a Los Angeles Fox News affiliate Fox 11 that it all started when his neighbor had his Kamala Harris-Tim Walz sign stolen from his front yard. Muder believes that his neighbor assumed that Muder took it because he has a Trump flag attached to his garage, the Daily Mail reported.

“He was thinking it was me because I have my Trump sign, which is the furthest from the truth,” Muder told Fox 11 on Sunday, explaining that soon after his Trump banner was taken. Suspecting his neighbor might have removed it in mistaken retribution, Muder had a look at the other man’s garbage pail and found the Trump flag buried at the bottom.

“I was on the sidewalk,” Muder told Fox. “I knew he had a Ring camera thing, so I said, ‘Hey, can you stay off my property?’ I left. It was probably no more than 10 or 15 minutes later he came over to my house screaming and yelling.” The surveillance camera documented the angry words between the two men. But the scene quickly turned ugly as Muder says his neighbor allegedly beat him up and left him in the garage “to die.”

“He knocked me out. I have a major brain bruise in the back of my head. I got kicked in the face, I believe,” Muder told Fox. “There was mass blood. He left me there basically on my own to survive,” he explained, adding that he was diagnosed with “bleeding of the brain” and sent to the hospital with a concussion

Lourdes Barrueto, Muder’s wife, expressed outrage over the violence.”'He could be dead right now and this man didn’t care about it. All because we have a Trump flag,” she told Fox.

Muder agreed, “I just can’t believe the violence ... For what? A flag? Are you kidding me? If you’re willing to hurt someone over a political view, you need some serious help.” Trump supporters have been targeted en masse with threats of violence.

Police told Fox 11 that a man was arrested for a fight at Muder’s address and was charged with assault and battery. He was reportedly released on bail.