Lake County woman forced to remove ‘Toot for Trump’ sign in yard
Lake County has ordered Elaine Simmons, 72, to take down her homemade “Toot for Trump, Proud to be an American” yard sign after it stood for almost a year, prompting countless honks of support.
It wasn’t until she added “We Stand for the National Anthem” to the sign off North Hancock Road near Minneola that it was brought to the attention of the county.
“That’s when the trouble started,” Simmons said Monday.
After an anonymous resident complained, someone hopped a barbed-wire fence and spraypainted President Donald Trump’s well-publicized boast of grabbing women “by the -----” on the sign.
“I’m going to lay low. I don’t have the resources to fight this.” Lake County resident Elaine Simmons, who plans to remove her “Toot for Trump” sign today
Simmons removed the graffiti with acetone and paper towels but said she’ll take down the sign today, abiding by an order to remove it within 14 days.
“I’m going to lay low,” she said. “I don’t have the resources to fight this.”
She said she thinks her addition to the sign is what prompted the complaint.
In Lake, signs are only allowed in residential areas if they belong to a homeowners association, a bed and breakfast or are “temporary” — in place for no more than 90 days.
Kneeling during the national anthem has evolved as a form of protest at NFL games. The issue flared last month when Trump said at a rally in Huntsville, Ala., “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a ----- off the field right now, he’s fired!’ ”
Days after she was cleaning debris from her 7.5-acre property after Hurricane Irma, Simmons heard on the news that an 8-year-old boy kneeled during the national anthem at his football game.
“That flipped me out — that’s not right,” she said. “So I went down to the shop, bought myself a 6-foot board and added ‘We stand for the national anthem’ ” to the Trump sign.
“You’ve got other ways to protest, and that’s to sit down and write a letter to your congressman,” she said. “If you want to be in this country, you have to do it [stand for the national anthem] … If you don’t like it, get a oneway ticket out of here.’’
Lake County Commissioner Leslie Campione said she’s sympathetic with Simmons’ sentiment.
“I’m always going to err on the side of people having more speech than less speech,” Campione said. But, she added, “you have to be careful to follow the law that is handed down by Supreme Court decisions.”
A county-code enforcement officer in an Oct. 9 letter informed Simmons the sign violated county codes.
Now, the sign that “got the toots” from passing drivers is coming down.
“OK, we don’t watch the NFL … but don’t go getting the whole country upset because of one incident where you didn’t get the proper treatment,” she said, referring to the kneeling protests.