Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe was taken down by police and hauled out of a city council meeting after speaking out against President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement and protesting in the chamber.

Kluwe, who spent eight seasons in the NFL, spoke during public comments against plans to include a MAGA reference in the design of a library plaque in the city, where he has lived for 15 years.

He told the council what MAGA has stood for since Trump returned to office last month:

“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,” said Kluwe, as cheers erupted from the audience. “You may have replaced a swastika with a red hat, but that is what it is.”

When he was done speaking, Kluwe said he would “engage in the time-honored American tradition of peaceful civil disobedience.”

He left the speakers’ lectern and took a couple of steps toward the council dais, but was intercepted by multiple police officers who took him down, cuffed him and carried him out of the chamber.

The police log shows Kluwe was arrested for disrupting a public assembly. Kluwe said on Bluesky that police were “polite and professional” and that he spent about four hours in custody.

“I give it 4.5 stars out of 5 (the metal bench in my cell could’ve used some cushions),” he snarked.

He also posted a Google Docs link to an extended version of comments with citations for everything he said.

The city council unanimously approved the plaque at the meeting, although the design was tweaked, according to KTLA. The station notes that all seven members are conservatives.

Gracey Van Der Mark, a member of the city council, told The Hill that there was “nothing peaceful” about Kluwe’s actions, accused him of “causing alarm among those in attendance, including two young students.”

Kluwe has over the years been outspoken on civil rights and LGBTQ issues, advocating for marriage equality and LGBTQ acceptance even when he was a player.

When the Minnesota Vikings released him after seven seasons in 2013, there was speculation it was due to his activism off the field rather than his performance on it.

Kluwe said speaking out was worth the risk.

″[I]f it ends up being something that costs me that position, I think making people aware of an issue that is causing children to commit suicide is more important than kicking a leather ball,” he told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune at the time.

See his appearance on the city’s live feed below: