Man undergoing dialysis looks to Trump for emotional support

US President Donald Trump may be a problem for many, including lawmakers in his own Republican party. The ‘Mr America First’ and one-man tweet army has been slammed by his critics for abuse of power and authoritarian tendencies.

In Florida itself not many like him. A man was held for driving through a Republican voter registration tent because he detested President Trump.

A Florida security guard was charged with threatening to kill President Trump in retaliation for a US  airstrike that killed Iran's top military general Qassem Soleimani.

However, he has some fans in the state too.

A Florida man undergoing kidney dialysis looks to Trump for emotional support but is extremely upset he can't bring a life-sized cardboard cutout of President Donald Trump to the centre where is he undergoing treatment.

Nelson Gibson told WPBF that his family can't sit with him during his three-and-a-half-hour treatments. To help, he began bringing a picture of Trump as a comfort item.

"It just feels like bringing something from home to make you comfortable," Gibson told the West Palm Beach area television station.

Gibson said no one complained about the photo. Next, he started bringing a small cardboard cutout of himself standing next to a Trump photo. No one complained about the small cutout, and Gibson told the station that some people even took photos with it.

On Saturday, Gibson took a life-sized cutout of Trump to his treatment at Fresenius Kidney Care in Port St. Lucie. He said that again, no one took issue with this new emotional support item.
But when he returned on Tuesday for treatment with the presidential cutout, Gibson ran into a roadblock.

"They told me it was too much and it wasn't a rally,” he told the TV station.

His son Eric contacted officials at the facility to find out what the problem was.

"It was supposed to be an issue of safety infectious disease which made no sense," Eric Gibson said.

The Gibsons say they feel singled out since the centre typically encourages patients to bring emotional support items.

Gibson said another patient brings in bubble wrap and pops it during her treatment, which he finds nerve-wracking.

"What I would really like to happen is for them not to infringe upon my father's freedom of expression and speech and allow him to bring in the lifesize cardboard cutout that takes up less service area than a garbage can," Eric Gibson told the station.

"While we cannot discuss any specific individual, we strongly support the ability of all our patients to express their views, which includes bringing reasonably sized items into our dialysis centres that do not create safety or infection control issues, or interfere with caregivers on the treatment floor," said the centre's spokesman Brad Puffer in a statement.

The family said they aren't sure when Gibson will return for treatment.