What's orange, childish, full of hot air, and coming to Grand Rapids on Thursday?
For one, President Donald Trump, who is holding a campaign rally at 7 p.m. at Van Andel Arena.
But also the world-famous "Baby Trump" balloon — literally Trump rendered as a big, round baby, cellphone in hand — which will welcome our man-baby president to Michigan by floating above a protest from 4 to 8 p.m. at nearby Rosa Parks Circle.
According to organizers, the event will also feature live music and "a one-of-a-kind Trump-Putin Puppet Show" (we're assuming they mean, like, actual puppets, and not just someone who might be compromised or financially influenced by a foreign power).
The balloon was created by the People’s Motorcade, Inc. a New Jersey-based grassroots nonprofit that has been protesting Trump since 2017. According to the group, Baby Trump appeared at 12 events in 11 cities, nine states, and two countries on two continents in just three months.
The group says:
The 2016 presidential campaign and election in our country was unlike any we have ever experienced. We saw lies replacing truth, fiction becoming more powerful than fact and hate overpowering love. We witnessed a reality TV star become the leader of our country with less than a majority of the vote. We saw, in real time, a foreign adversary manipulate social media as a tool for propaganda against our democratic process. Worst of all, we allowed ourselves to be lulled to sleep by the belief that our electorate would never elect such an obviously flawed and unqualified con artist like DJT as president. We were wrong then and so now we must persist to resist!
More information on the event is available on Facebook. More information on the Baby Trump Tour is available at babytrumptour.org.
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