Sarah Stier/Getty Images, Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
- Dion Cini has been ejected from several MLB stadiums this year for unfurling 'Trump Won' banners.
- Cini said Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have encouraged him to hang the banners for years.
- Cini hung a 'Trump 2020' banner at Yankee Stadium in 2018, which initially caught Trump's attention.
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A man keeps hanging "Trump Won" banners at MLB stadiums and says Donald Trump told him to do it.
Dion Cini, an avid Trump supporter, has been ejected from multiple MLB games this year for unfurling "Trump Won" banners over the upper decks. He records his interactions with security and uploads the footage to Twitter and Youtube.
Cini said he originally hung a "Trump 2020" banner at Yankee Stadium in July 2018, and the stunt earned the former president's praise. Cini says Trump has reached out to him multiple times since then to thank him and encourage him to keep doing it.
"After I did Yankee Stadium three years ago, which is Trump's favorite stadium, he called, and he tweeted, and he Instagrammed, and he said 'thank you, please don't stop,'" Cini told Insider. "I've interacted with the Trump family multiple times. I'm not directly part of the Trump organization, but they know who I am, they know what I'm doing, and they like it."
Trump and Donald Trump Jr. each made public Instagram posts thanking Cini for his banner stunt in 2018.
This year, Cini unfurled his first banner at Yankee Stadium for the New York Yankees' game against the Toronto Blue Jays on May 27. Footage shows that he was escorted out by security and police but then released and given the banner back.
Cini has also hung "Trump Won" banners at Citi Field in New York, Fenway Park in Boston, and Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Cini was ejected each time but never arrested.
Police at Citi Field even protected Cini from a man who shoved him, tackling the man and arresting him.
"The way that I'm treated at every stadium, and almost everywhere I go with the flags by police officers is politely, handshakes," Cini said. "The police respect what I do. I don't know what their political opinions are, nor do I care."
Cini said the reception from fans at the stadiums he's visited varies and has changed over the years.
Footage shows that Cini received a wave of boos from fans at Yankee Stadium in May, but that wasn't the case in July 2018, when he said he was cheered by fans and wasn't even ejected by security after unfurling the "Trump 2020" banner.
Outside of the fan who shoved Cini at Citi Field, the fan reaction was mostly positive as fans in the section gave him a round of applause as he was escorted out.
At Fenway Park, Cini's banner garnered a wave of raucous cheers from surrounding fans. However, Fenway Park security was harsher on him than security at other stadiums, as guards confiscated the banner.
-Dion Cini (@dioncini) June 8, 2021
"Where I had the best reception, the worst treatment by security was at Fenway Park," Cini said. "I'm filing a grand larceny charge against him, and I am getting my flag back ... and he will have to answer for grand larceny."
Cini's banner drop at Citizens Bank Park garnered a more tempered reaction from fans, without many audible boos or cheers before police escorted him out.
Cini said he plans to continue doing the banner drops and doesn't expect to be barred from any stadiums. Each video ends with security guards telling him and his accomplices they can come back to the stadium at a later date after they've been ejected.
"There's a reason why they keep me in the baseball stadiums. I'm welcome back at any baseball stadium even once I've already dropped that any time I want," Cini said. "The reason I think I'm not kicked out of the stadiums is because I think the people at the top are conservatives."