A North Carolina man whose Jonestown jab at a Donald Trump rally went viral says the Secret Service escorted him out minutes after his Fox News interview.
Independent journalist Marisa Kabas tracked down 57-year-old Tom Hoyle, who was interviewed at Thursday’s rally in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and she spoke to him at length for her website The Handbasket about his viral moment and what happened after the Fox News reporter realized he’d been pranked.
“Well, in the late ’70s, I was a little too young to get involved and go to South America for the Jonestown Massacre,” Hoyle told Fox News on air. “But this is as close as I’ll ever get, so that’s why I’m here.”
When the confused reporter asked, “Wait, the Jonestown Massacre?” Hoyle fired back: “That’s right. There’s nothing like seeing a cult right up front.”
Hoyle told Kabas that he decided to attend after rally organizers called his business phone inviting him. He co-owns MadPark Designs, a custom printing company in Charlotte.
“They broke the cardinal rule,” Hoyle said. “So we always look at ways we can turn the tables and make their day a little less smooth.”
He registered under his real name, phone number and email. “I didn’t want there to be any doubt that they invited me,” he said.
His original plan was to yell “something super vulgar” a few minutes into Trump’s speech. But when the Fox reporter approached him, he improvised.
“I’m not going to be vulgar on TV,” Hoyle said he told himself. “I’ll just say something about it being a cult, and then the rest of it just flowed.”
He thinks the reporter picked him because of his beard and ball cap. “I look like you, but I’m not like you,” Hoyle said, calling himself a “daywalker.” “I’m the vampire during the day — come talk to me and watch yourself get bitten.”
Minutes later, men who identified themselves as Secret Service asked to speak with him. Hoyle asked if it was “about the concession stand,” which he complained had closed early and that he was starving. “He didn’t like that,” Hoyle said, “and then they walked me out.”
On his way out, he passed the private security guard who had questioned him at the door, and whom he had talked in circles about his shirt for the death metal band Death. “Hey man, you didn’t vet me too well,” Hoyle told him. “So they may not have him do their security in the future.”
Hoyle was a registered Republican for decades but re-registered as an independent about a year and a half ago. “There is no Republican Party. It’s just MAGA,” he said.
He told Kabas that he’s been a longtime Trump hater.
“I have hated Donald Trump since 1989, as a young man, sophomore in college,” Hoyle said. “What he did with the Central Park Five. I already knew I didn’t like him because of watching him on David Letterman, who I was a huge fan of growing up. I already knew I didn’t like him, but when the Central Park Five stuff happened, I decided then, ‘you’re dead to me.’”
He credits his comedic timing to Billy Crystal, and he isn’t worried about retribution.
“We are two blocks from the police academy, and guess what? We print for them, too,” Hoyle said. “We do not fear some keyboard warrior that might come down here.”
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