PROTESTERS USE TRUMP BLIMP.
An orange, diaper-wearing, six-metre blimp of Donald Trump as a baby is expected to fly over the skies of London next week during the U.S. president’s visit to England.
BALLOON CAMPAIGN
Protesters are planning a “stop Trump” march through central London when he visits next week. The activists who planned the blimp stunt, known as “Trump Baby,” raised more than $26,000 through an online crowdfunding campaign to buy the inflatable.
MAYOR OK’S BALLOON
The protesters’ request to fly the balloon on July 13 was originally rejected by the London mayor’s office, saying it didn’t qualify as a protest. But London Mayor Sadiq Khan later approved it after thousands signed a petition. The mayor’s office said in a statement that it “supports the right to peaceful protest and understands that this can take many different forms.” A mayor spokesman added that the activists flying the blimp “will also need to receive the necessary approvals from the Metropolitan Police and National Air Traffic Service in order for it to fly.”
DELAYED VISIT
Trump is scheduled to visit London next week after much delay, with concerns over protests having scuttled previous plans. He has repeatedly angered Londoners with comments about their city, including remarks at a National Rifle Association meeting in May in which he claimed that London has strict gun laws but has such a bad knife problem that a hospital in the city looks like a “military war-zone hospital.”
CRITICAL VOICES
The blimp has been criticized with some on social media who called it juvenile and disrespectful. Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Tom Harris also accused Khan pandering to his leftist base. “In the internet age, maybe politicians like Khan feel they have no choice but to indulge their own base. Had he taken the higher road, had he said no to the thousands who wanted to fly the balloon, he might have lost a few votes here and there. And maybe that is indeed too high a price to pay. A higher price, perhaps, than a U.K.U.S. trade deal,” he wrote.