Transgender Vet Says Trump Supporter Torched Her Truck

A transgender mother tells police she and her 3-year-old son were woken early Saturday after someone spray-painted "Trump" on her truck and set it on fire.

The unidentified woman, an Iraq War veteran who retired in 2007 after suffering a brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, says the Putnam County Sheriff's Office is investigating the arson as a hate crime, reports The Tennessean. The police would not confirm to the newspaper, though, that it was a hate crime investigation.

The woman said she was sleeping when she heard a disturbance outside at 3:30 a.m. Elle, as the police are referring to her, walked outside and noticed her truck's door was open. Thinking she accidentally left it ajar, she closed it and returned inside; a half-hour later she heard the horn honk and saw the truck aflame.

"Most of (the paint) got burned off, but one of the police officers pointed out that it said 'Trump' on the hood and the back," Elle told The Tennesean, which is the only media outlet so far to have spoken to the victim. "It just breaks my heart every time I walk past the driveway."

Elle said she doesn't have Hillary Clinton signs on the front yard of her Cookeville home, but is an active supporter of the Democratic candidate on social media. Since coming out as trans two years ago, Elle said she was greeted warmly in Cookeville, though not everywhere in the state.