Tyler Linfesty, a Billings West High School senior, has become an Internet sensation after his puzzled expression during President Trump’s rally in Montana Thursday got him booted from the event.
“I didn’t really have a plan,” Linfesty told the Billings Gazette late Friday. “I was just going to clap for things I agreed with and not clap for things I didn’t agree with.”
Linfesty, who attended the rally with two friends, told the local news outlet he was still grappling with his online notoriety as “Plaid Shirt Guy” following his escapades being curated on social media using that hashtag.
“I don’t think any of us had any idea we were going to be that big on TV, because whenever I see a Trump rally, you see Trump, you see hundreds of people behind him — that’s my experience at least,” said Linfesty. “In this case, there were like seven people (on screen). I did not know that I was going to be that big.”
Linfesty also reportedly caused a stir because he was seen wearing the rose emblem of the Democratic Socialists of America, according to the Billings Gazette.
He said a Trump campaign staffer midway through the speech asked him to follow her to a room where police and Secret Service checked his I.D.
“They treated me fine,” he continued. “They just told me not to come back.”
Trump made the campaign stop in Montana after internal Republican polling showed GOP Senate candidate Matt Rosendale was in striking distance of defeating incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester.
