Come June, President Donald Trump may just have to contend with an enormous balloon version of himself in the skies of the United Kingdom. According to The Guardian on Tuesday, Trump's 2019 UK visit could be interrupted with a balloon depicting him as a gigantic baby, wailing in a diaper, floating up in the English air. The blimp is part of a planned demonstration and might be five times the size of its predecessor, according to the outlet.
"The Trump baby will definitely fly again," Leo Murray, who crowdsourced funds for the original Trump balloon, told The Guardian. "We have been toying with the idea of a Trump baby hot air balloon, which would be about five times the size. But [it] would cost a huge amount of money — upwards of £70,000." That's well over $90,000.
Originally, protesters in the UK floated a 6-meter-tall inflatable baby Trump balloon to demonstrate against Trump's London trip in July 2018. The orange and unmistakably unhappy Trump balloon caught the attention of people around the world, but it's not a phenomenon limited to the UK alone. In August 2018, two "Baby Trump" balloons traversed the skies in Bedminster, New Jersey, as part of the Baby Trump Tour created by Didier Jiminez-Castro and Jim Girvan.
Shadow Treasury Minister for Sustainable Economics Clive Lewis shared a bit of wry humor on Twitter while posting a photo of the Trump balloon. "Dust off the blimp," Lewis tweeted on Tuesday, tagging #TrumpUKVisit.
Flying a massive balloon in public comes with a legal caveat. Protesters behind the project will have to obtain permission from local authorities to fly the blimp. For example, in New Jersey's case, the team behind the two Trump balloons had to be careful about regulations and guidelines stated by the United States Secret Service and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Especially with the FAA, the agency imposes certain Temporary Flight Restriction rules for where the president is physically present.
Similar logistical questions may come up for the UK version of the Trump balloon. For now, though, it looks like the campaigning team could get the green signal from local authorities. A spokesperson for London Mayor Sadiq Khan told The Guardian: "Any application to fly it on land that the Greater London Authority (GLA) manages will be judged by the same criteria as last time by GLA officials, the police, and the Civil Aviation Authority."
The upcoming Trump balloon for the president's trip still may face some logistical problems. And it has to do with its rather remarkable size. Protesters behind the plan noted to The Guardian that the behemoth size of the scowling and wailing blimp could end up becoming an issue in terms of getting permission to fly it over London.
One of the members of the Stop Trump Coalition, Asad Rehman, told The Guardian, "We do have the baby blimp — it will fly and we’re also thinking about the option of making a bigger baby blimp. Logistics are the only consideration." Those interested in seeing the massive balloon will just have to wait for June.
