Kurt Suzuki, the capital’s baseball team catcher, was especially outward in his appreciation for the US president, dawning Trump’s signature MAGA hat. When called to the stage, President Trump embraced Suzuki and said that he loved him.

He soon became the target of much anger, with many calling to “officially cancel” the Nats catcher and others condemning how he was “cozying up to a monster who hates people like me.” One commenter on Twitter claimed that the MAGA hat was “a form of racist hate speech and an implicit threat of violence” and that “Kurt Suzuki should be banned from baseball.” Another called Suzuki “an embarrassment to his family.”