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GUEST COMMENTARY--After its triumphant tour over hundreds of thousands of U.K protesters and their bloody brilliant signs, the Baby Trump blimp - scowling face, yuge diaper, teeny hands clutching toxic phone and all - is coming to New Jersey to torment the noxious baby himself at his Bedminster golf club, where Trump often weekends on, lest we forget, your and my dime. In a couple of days, a GoFundMe page by local activists has raised over $8,000, or almost double their original goal, and still going strong - to bring the 20-foot masterstroke to Trump's home turf.
The English baby was likewise crowdfunded by a group of experienced organizers - "If anyone can blow up Trump Baby, we can" - who have now raised close to an additional £40,000 to send him on a world tour. The balloon, says its designer, deliberately "uses the language of mockery, which is a language that (Trump) understands."
The Bring Baby Trump to America campaign has been led by activist Didier Jimenez-Castro of Hillsborough N.J.,working with the local Democratic Party and the People's Motorcade, a grassroots group that holds regular Saturday protests in "the free speech zone" between Trump's golf course and Bedminster's public library.
"We need to get under his skin as much as we can," says Jimenez-Castro, who sees the balloon as a symbol for disastrous policies from egregious racism to climate change denial to children in cages. Working at a local family homeless shelter, he adds, "gives me a lot of fuel to keep going and say 'No, we are not going to cower to this clown.'"
The balloon is being ordered Monday, and should arrive in about a month. It's proven so popular several more campaigns have reportedly sprung up to bring him to Maryland, Texas, Missouri and New Mexico; Jimenez-Castro also hopes to tour with him up and down the East Coast.
"We will continue to work hard," he vows on Facebook, "to bring this big baby to the public."
"No royalty or other fraud can face ridicule in a fair field and live."- Mark Twain
(CityWatch guest columnist Abby Zimet writes for the excellent Common Dreams … where this commentary first appeared.)
-cw