Skywriters Trolled Donald Trump At The Rose Parade

With the first caucuses of the 2016 presidential primaries just on the horizon, it's no surprise that Friday's Rose Bowl game between Stanford and Iowa, the university from the ever-important caucus state, became the source of political debate. Hours before the game kicked off in Pasadena, California, a hilarious Rose Parade stunt trolled Republican front-runner Donald Trump for all to see, taking the controversy surrounding the always outspoken, sometimes offensive candidate to the skies. What's more, Friday's bowl might not be the only football game hit by the prank.

Above the Rose Parade, which takes place in Pasadena before the Rose Bowl game each year, skywriters wrote anti-Trump messages, including, "America is great. Donald Trump is disgusting," and, "Iowans dump Trump." It was all organized by Stan Pate, a millionaire real estate developer and anti-Trump activist. He's not from Iowa or California, but he took full advantage of the crowds gathered for the Rose Bowl game to make his thoughts seen. For the record, Pate is from Alabama — not to mention a graduate of the University of Alabama, which had a big game of its own this weekend. To make things even more interesting, he has previously donated to Marco Rubio's campaign. The messages (which appear very clearly written for a plane) quickly attracted the attention of people at the parade.

The messages also promoted an anti-Trump website registered to Pate, called anybodybuttrump.us. The website positions the 2016 election as "America vs. Trump," and boasts a list of Trump's 10 biggest failures. To further clarify his opinion about Trump, Pate told CBS News on Friday, "He spews hate, not only on every candidate, he spews it on women, Latinos, Muslims and the list goes on. And it's just time we respond and say this is not what we expect out of a candidate running for president."

This might be the first time that Pate's stunt has received such widespread recognition, but it's not the first time he has gone to such extremes in the name of his political beliefs. In 2010, a profile on Alabama.com reported that Pate had admittedly spent millions of dollars on political campaigns over the previous two decades. He started out by donating $25,000 to a gubernatorial campaign in his home state. In a similar manner as Friday's tactic, Pate also previously paid for a banner calling for former Alabama Governor Bob Riley's impeachment to be flown over Pasadena on the day of the college football championship game. Pate has plans to fly similar anti-Trump demonstrations over this year's Orange Bowl, Cotton Bowl, and Sugar Bowl.

Pate donated $5,200 to Rubio's campaign organization in its early stages, but now he has told CBS News that he is undecided. One thing's for sure, though: He won't be voting for Trump.