‘Baby Trump’ Blimp Will Fly At Donald Trump’s July 4 ‘Salute To America’ Extravaganza In Washington, D.C.
In February, Donald Trump took to his Twitter account to announce what he claimed would be “one of the biggest gatherings in the history of Washington, D.C.” coming on July 4 — an event Trump dubbed “A Salute To America.” But now Trump’s planned extravaganza, which will apparently take the place of the traditional fireworks display on the National Mall and will include Trump himself delivering a speech at the Lincoln Memorial, may get some uninvited company.
According to a report by the Washington, D.C. TV station WTTG, the “Baby Trump” blimp will fly at the event as activists were granted a permit to hold a protest, which they have titled “Freedom From Trump,” in Washington, D.C. on July 4. The anti-war women’s group Code Pink plans to fly the blimp during the protest, though exactly where they will be allowed to protest and fly the inflatable caricature of Trump is not yet clear.
The “Baby Trump” blimp is a large, floating balloon depicting a cartoon version of Trump clad only in diapers. The blimp was created by British anti-Trump protesters during Trump’s 2018 visit to the United Kingdom, according to an Associated Press story posted on Business Insider. The original blimp stood 20 feet tall, but the blimp flown on July will likely be a copy of the original, and its size has not yet been revealed.
The National Park Service granted Code Pink the permit to fly the balloon, which is designed primarily to annoy Trump by publicly ridiculing him, spokesperson Mike Litterst confirmed, according to The Hill.
Code Pink has been raising money via a GoFundMe campaign to finance the “Baby Trump” protest. The fundraising page says that the blimp will fly “just hours before Trump addresses the nation from Lincoln Memorial.”
Code Pink had raised over $13,000 of a $20,000 goal as of Wednesday, eight days before the July 4 events, according to figures on the GoFundMe page.
Though the flying of “Baby Trump” will clearly create controversy, Trump has already created controversy of his own with his plans to deliver a speech at the Lincoln Memorial and to hold his own version of the annual Washington, D.C. July 4 celebration — which according to Military.com will include a “military parade.”
Trump has long expressed his desire to hold a “military parade” in the nation’s capital and such a parade had been planned for Veteran’s Day in 2018 but was postponed for reasons that were not made clear. According to CNN, estimates of the price tag for the military parade ran as high a $92 million.
