A Small Act of Good Trouble

Former Vikings Chris Kluwe was arrested after calling MAGA a ‘Nazi movement’ at city council meeting in CA.

Kluwe was arrested on Feb. 18, 2025 after he sat down and went limp during a city council meeting in Huntington Beach, CA.

Fed up with what’s being done to our country, Kluwe said, “MAGA stands for trying to erase trans people from existence. MAGA stands for resegregation and racism. MAGA stands for censorship and book bans. MAGA stands for firing air traffic controllers while planes are crashing. MAGA stands for firing the people overseeing our nuclear arsenal. MAGA stands for firing military veterans and those serving them at the VA, including canceling research on veteran suicide. MAGA stands for cutting funds to education, including for disabled children. MAGA is profoundly corrupt, unmistakably anti-democracy and most importantly, MAGA is explicitly a Nazi movement. You may have replaced a swastika with a red hat, but that is what it is.”

The incident occurred at a city council meeting, where Kluwe was protesting the city’s approval of a public library plaque that was designed to use words to spell out “MAGA,” the acronym for President Donald Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again,” as an acrostic.

Video from the council meeting shows the former Minnesota Vikings player reading a prepared statement where he called MAGA “explicitly a Nazi movement.” Kluwe continued to say that he would engage in “peaceful civil disobedience,” before he left the lectern and walked toward the city’s council members.

Police are seen rushing in Kluwe’s direction, as shouting and cheers can be heard from the gallery. The meeting was then put into recess for a number of minutes.

The city’s arrest log said Kluwe was arrested on a charge of disturbing an assembly. Kluwe told the Orange County Register that he spent four hours in custody before his release.