The California dentist who went viral for joking about giving her patients worse care if they aren’t Trump supporters is defending herself in a new interview.

The video of Dr. Harleen Grewal speaking at a meeting of the Santa Clarita Republican Party is actually two years old, ABC 7 Los Angeles reported on Friday. The clip shows the dentist telling the crowd that she has a MAGA-style hat which reads, “Make Your Smile Great Again.”

“So I wear that when I work on my patients, so when they look horrified or complain, I quietly cut back on the laughing gas,” Grewal joked.

When the local news outlet visited Grewal’s practice this week, she said she’d recently been investigated and cleared by the California Dental Board, which found no evidence of wrongdoing despite concerns raised by her joke. PEOPLE could not verify this statement.

“They asked me if I said that, and I said, ‘Yes, I said in one of my roasting speeches at a women’s Republican group,’ ” she admitted. “Just like the Democrats, they make jokes too. We make jokes as well. Why can’t we just take a joke lightheartedly?”

“But that was taken to cancel me,” Grewal said of the clip. “The dental board did an investigation, they cleared it out and said there was nothing they could find that proved any of that.”

The MAGA hat has become an ubiquitous symbol of Trump’s presidency and devotees, with the White House now featuring a dedicated section of the West Wing for Trump-themed merchandise.

In addition to the classic “Make America Great Again,” Trump fans can also buy hats that read “Trump Was Right About Everything” and “Trump 2028,” evidence of the president’s ongoing pledge to run for an unconstitutional third term.

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The display was first seen in the background of a video when Trump welcomed Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to the White House on Aug. 9. But it went viral after the White House hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a cadre of European leaders on Aug. 18.

Margo Martin, Trump’s special assistant and communications adviser, shared a photo on X in which the president was showing Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron a red baseball cap that read “4 Years,” despite the constitutional amendment that prevents Trump from lawfully serving past January 2029.

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on 2025-09-26 21:14:00.
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