Gasbag set to fly & cry
Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s . . . Trump Baby!
A blimp parodying President Trump as a diaper-wearing baby has been given the green light to soar over London next week.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he will allow the nearly 20-foot blimp to fly over Parliament on July 13 — while Trump is in town — after Twitter user Leo Murray campaigned for the right to fly it.
“The mayor supports the right to peaceful protest and understands that this can take many different forms,” Khan’s office said in a statement.
“His city operations team have met with the organisers and have given them permission to use Parliament Square Garden as a grounding point for the blimp,” the spokesman continued, noting Murray must get the “necessary approvals” from Metropolitan Police and National Air Traffic Service as well.
Murray tweeted last month that he wanted to fly the blimp — which depicts Trump as an orange, scowling baby with small hands clutching a phone wearing nothing but a diaper — but the mayor told him he couldn’t.
In the weeks since, a Twitter account run by Murray called “Trump Baby” has repeatedly urged people to sign a petition in hopes of getting the mayor’s approval. The petition, which started over three weeks ago, had garnered over 10,000 signatures as of Thursday morning.
“When Trump visits the UK on Friday the 13th of July this year, we want to make sure he knows that all of Britain is looking down on him and laughing at him,” reads the online petition’s description.
Murray has also raised over $22,000 through a crowdfunding campaign that was originally intentioned to “hire a barge to guarantee that Trump Baby will fly, even if the authorities refuse to let us fly him from Parliament Square Gardens.”
He’s since said the blimp will go on a “world tour” after they raised far more funds than anticipated.
Trump’s visit to the United Kingdom next week will mark his first trip there since he was elected. He’s expected to face mass protests beyond the Trump blimp during his time there.