U.S. President Donald Trump loves to vacation. He’s spent 146 of his first 572 days in office at one of his own golf properties, including 64 days at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Before he took office, as president-elect, he held a series of high profile, high level meetings there as he explored options to fill his Cabinet.
Now, though, his time at the Bedminster course may be marred by something that he’s already proven agitated at — giant balloons depicting him as a crying baby (no insult to babies intended — they have their reasons).
New Jersey activists Didier Jiminez-Castro and Jim Girvan have welcomed the first two of an eventual six such balloons to the area. Their arrival comes after the widespread notoriety of a similar balloon depicting Trump as a crying baby that was flown during protests over his visit to the United Kingdom.
The organizers behind that, including Leo Murray, indicated that they intended for their efforts to go global, mentioning Australia as an optional destination since Trump will likely be visiting there later this year.
Girvan, though, declined to say where he got his balloons. He also declined to give an exact date of when they might be put to use, but he said that he hopes there’s at least one such event before the midterms later this year.
He added that he’s open to passing on one of the balloons to an activist organization elsewhere in the country, explaining:
‘We want to make sure the balloons get put into good hands. If we can locate an organization that’s willing and able to have multiple events on a regional level, we’re certainly going to consider that.’
The efforts, no matter their exact practical connections to those in the U.K., are of the same sort.
Over the Atlantic, activists were able to raise large sums of cash to support their efforts, and the activists in New Jersey blew past their originally set goals, too. They took in $23,748 after having only originally sought $4,500.
The efforts here in the U.S. haven’t culminated in actual run-ins with the president yet, but there’s already a precedent for how that may play out thanks to the U.K.’s experience.
Trump complained while in the country earlier this year that their balloon, which ended up flying over a massive protest against his presence in London, made him feel “unwelcome.”
In other words, it worked.
The British activist Leo Murray explained some of his reasoning behind his efforts.
In a web piece, he said of Trump:
‘This is a man who lacks the capacity for moral shame. Liberal outrage just makes him smirk harder. To really get through to Trump, you have to get down on his level and talk to him in a language he understands — personal insults.’
Trump is certainly known for his personal insults. The man is inexorably linked with Twitter, and not for being a tech genius. As a president of the United States, he spends a significant amount of time on the social media platform typing out impassioned jabs at his opponents — and New Jersey activists are sick of it.
Featured Image via YouTube screenshot
