So there it was amidst the artisan candles and gluten-free pastries: a Trump campaign table brazenly parked outside the Sunset Night Market. In a city where “Republican” is practically a four-letter word and “liberal” is the local religion, this felt like an uninvited guest crashing the most progressive party in town. In San Francisco, it was like bringing a cheeseburger to a vegan potluck, or in Trump’s case, a Big Mac with extra sauce.
For those who stopped, the conversation was less about changing minds and more about testing just how deep the rabbit hole went. Or at least that’s how we broached the subject. In a laundry list of questions we asked “Angus Kirkenwell” — the name sounded fake — he mostly stuck to the script of Republican talking to a Daily Show reporter.
How do you feel about Kamala Harris?
She’s terrible. It’s just done to degrade and humiliate us. It’s like Nero making his horse a senator.
What about childless cat ladies?
I think it’s so sad. They’re clearly unhappy and they’ve been brainwashed, and it’s like they’ve had their life stolen from them.
Stolen from them because of cats or because no kids?
Because they were brainwashed by feminism early in life, and like now they’re in too deep and they can’t quit. And like they’re deeply unhappy. They can’t quit being feminist, childless cat ladies. I want to be really clear: I don’t dislike them. I feel a great deal of pity for them, and I would like them to live full and happy lives. I feel like they’re just as much victims of the psychological operations of the deep state, as those kids who got their penises cut off by the trans agenda.
Do you have kids?
No.
Why?
Too poor.
Me too. Can you afford a cat?
Not really.
I can’t afford one either — glad we’re on the same page about that. How do you feel about trans people?
I think that they can go be trans on their own time. Right? What was the first one — Caitlyn Jenner? If that dude wants to go be a trans on his own time, like I don’t care. I don’t care at all. I just don’t want to see some ugly old tr--ny shoved in my face, all over the news and in the newspapers. It’s the parading of it in the public square that’s so distasteful.
If you could go back to the last three years of your life, how many hours of your time do you think Caitlyn Jenner has taken up?
The right way to think about it is how many times the trans agenda been pushed in our face and assaulted my eyeballs. I would say 20 percent of my waking hours in some form —
You know you can choose a category on PornHub right?
I don’t watch PornHub. Porn is another weapon of the deep state to drain men’s vital warrior energy.
After a while it felt like we were just giving “Kirkenwell” what he wanted: airtime for all the weirdness that Trump’s been known for this election cycle. But Angus was actually there supporting Ellen Lee Zhou, this year’s Republican candidate for San Francisco mayor. And that at least gives a little context for a rightwing campaign table to position itself on an SF corner that at other times hosts an evangelical man passing out brochures — asking us about our plans after we die.
Zhou has no shot at winning according to the polls, but she and Angus represent a small cohort of San Francisco conservatives who believe our city will eventually turn red. And it’s not as though we haven’t seen or even welcomed such tables at our events before — like the Log Cabin Republicans who tabled at Pride this year.
That doesn’t mean the neighborhood or indeed the city loves to see them with open arms; Just a couple hours ago, Zhou posted a confrontation between Angus and a Sunset Night Market attendee.
“I don’t care about myself, it’s about the group of people you represent,” the man said. Replied Angus: “The group of people that’s called America. It’s called team America.” My questions with Angus continued:
What do you think’s gonna happen in November?
I think that there are three possibilities. The first one is that they steal the election again like they did in 2020. The second is Trump wins again, like he did in 2020, and the deep state won’t have it, so they activate Biden’s mercenary army that will be used to attack patriots. And the third possibility is that the election doesn’t happen at all.
Do you think SF will ever turn red?
I think so, yeah. The reign of terror that we live under now cannot last forever. Even the camps opened eventually. As dark as things were under Stalin.
Do you think Trump should go to jail?
No.
What do you think about January 6th?
I think that was one of the most beautiful and tragic moments in our nation’s history. Because that was effectively the end of the republic and the beginning of coup. Right? And those beautiful brave selfless men. (“Who?” I asked.) The January 6th patriots that put their lives on the line and went into the Capitol to prevent the coup from stealing the election. They are as much heroes as George Washington and the rest of the revolutionary founders. We cannot allow the left to tell our story. The left, they want us to apologize for it. But we must never apologize for it. That was one of the greatest moments as patriots. All of those men are heroes — they’re political prisoners now.
Cool, cool. Obviously there’s a lot of lies and bigotry in his responses. Still, it’s good to be in a city and country that advocates for people even like Angus and Zhou to speak freely about how they feel — no matter how batshit they come off. And for whatever it’s worth, he was a perfectly polite bigot and quite entertaining at times.
The Sunset Night Market itself was a pleasant event that outdid its first overture last year. A full album and story comes shortly from me and The Bold Italic, where we celebrate events like these for their continued effort in making San Francisco alive and great — as it always has been.
Courtney Muro is a San Francisco-based content strategist, producer, designer, and creator. Saul Sugarman contributed words, reporting, and questions. Screen grabs from the interview filmed by Chelsea Davis.
The Bold Italic is a non-profit media organization, and we publish first-person perspectives about San Francisco and the Bay Area. Donate to us today.
