The presidential alibi.

The attorney for a Montana man accused of throwing a 13-year-old boy to the ground at a rodeo because the teenager didn’t remove his hat during the national anthem said Wednesday his client believes he was acting on an order from President Donald Trump.

The president’s “rhetoric” contributed to Curt Brockway’s disposition when he grabbed the boy by the throat and slammed him to the ground, fracturing his skull, at the Mineral County fairgrounds Saturday, attorney Lance Jasper told The Missoulian.

That’s the lawyer talking, so who knows how true it is, but it’s certainly plausible.

Brockway, 39, told a sheriff’s deputy that he asked the boy to remove his hat out of respect for the national anthem before the start of the county rodeo, Mineral County Attorney Ellen Donohue wrote in the document describing the attack. The boy cursed at Brockway in response, and the man grabbed him by the throat, “lifted him into the air and slammed the boy into the ground,” Donohue wrote.

If that’s how it happened it seems far more likely that Brockway simply lost his temper when the boy swore at him.

Also, here’s a thought: people could just mind their own business when it comes to things like taking hats off or kneeling or placement of hands when a “national anthem” is sung. In the UK theaters used to play “God Save the Queen” at the end of the performance and everyone was expected to stand. Why? A theater isn’t a church nor is it a government building so why? Just a pretext for feelings of belligerence or self-love? I don’t know. I wish we could stop with all the football-nationalism bullshit.