Vietnam vet fights NY village to keep ‘Trump is my president’ banner flying at his home

A disabled Vietnam vet is fighting a new war against his small town government.

Leonard Amicola, who has lived in the Westchester County village of Croton-on-Hudson for 67 years, said he’ll battle local officials to keep his “Trump is my President” banner flying, claiming he has a Constitutional right to express support for the commander-in-chief, he told News12 Westchester.

Amicola, who said he’s had a Trump flag or banner up since 2021, said he’s already had to deal with a backlash from local residents, who have hurled rocks and even stolen his flags and banners.

“I did at one time have it on the pole, and one night somebody came and took it and it was gone,” he told the outlet. “So that’s I think when I decided to put it up there — which is, they can’t get to it.”

At issue is a “longstanding prohibition on banners” that village Mayor Brian Pugh said makes Amicola’s display a “straight forward code enforcement matter, not a free speech issue.”

Pugh told News12 that law has at least 17 other local properties have been cited for violations — not just the veteran and Trump supporter.

Amicola disagrees, and has even hired a lawyer to keep his banner flying.

“We believe that the village’s enforcement action is unfair, that it targets the content of his speech than simply the display,” his attorney, Roseann Schuyler, told the outlet.

“We feel that his actions are protected under the First Amendment,” Schuyler said.

She said Amicola will plead not guilty and continue to fight the citation — and said it “may be a matter we need to bring to federal court.”

Ironically, the village backed the vet with a different kind of banner in the past.

In 2023, Amicola was among a host of Croton residents tapped by the local government to take part in the Veterans Banner Program, which was “designed to honor village residents who have served in the armed forces.”

“The banner will serve as a reminder throughout the year of their courage and sacrifice for all residents of our village, state and country,” officials said at the time.

That banner hails Amicola as a “Hometown Hero.”