Donald Trump baby balloon

Overview
On 13 July 2018, during an official visit by the President of the United States, Donald Trump, to the United Kingdom, an inflatable caricature of Trump was flown in Parliament Square in London, in protest at his visit and policies.[1][2] A quarter of a million protestors attended.[3]

The balloon was also flown in Edinburgh the following day, during Trump's visit there, but permission to fly it near Trump's Turnberry golf course was refused by Police Scotland.[4]

Construction
The 6-metre (20 ft) tall, helium-filled plastic inflatable, also referred to as a "balloon" or "blimp", was designed by Matt Bonner and constructed by Imagine Inflatables of Leicester.[5] It was made after a crowdfunding campaign on crowdfunder.co.uk[6] raised the £16,000 cost of its creation and deployment.[4] It depicts Trump as "an angry orange baby"[2] wearing a nappy[4], with a snarling mouth[7] and tiny hands[8] holding a mobile phone.

Use
Permission from the Greater London Authority (GLA), Metropolitan Police and National Air Traffic Service was required for the balloon to be flown in Parliament Square, the space above which is considered restricted airspace.[9] Permission was granted, allowing it to be flown, while tethered, up to 30 metres (100 ft) high, for up to two hours.[5][10][9] Both the GLA's 'City Operations' team and NATS stressed that the nature of the protest did not play a part on their decisions.[11]

Following its appearance in London, the balloon was subsequently taken to Edinburgh, where it was flown in The Meadows, a public park near to the city centre, as part of the protests against Trump's two day visit to Scotland,[12] permission to fly the balloon near Turnberry golf course having been refused.[4]

Motivation
One of the organisers, Max Wakefield said, "This is about the rise of far-right politics that dehumanizes people in order to get into power [and] an attempt to introduce some good British humour into the political discourse surrounding Trump's visit."[10] Wakefield cited the Trump administration's family separation policy and Trump's withdrawal of the United States from the Paris climate agreement as examples of the kind of polices which the protest was targetting.[10]

Leo Murray, who led the campaign, wrote, "So when Trump visits the UK on Friday the 13th of July this year, we want to make sure he knows that all of Britain is looking down on him and laughing at him. That's why a group of us have chipped in and raised enough money to have a 6 meter high blimp made by a professional inflatables company, to be flown in the skies over Parliament Square during Trump's visit."[13][14]

Reactions
Opinions on the balloon were divided. When it appeared that GLA permission might not be forthcoming, thousands of people signed an online petition calling for it to be granted.[10]

Opposing the protest, Drew Liquerman, a spokesman for Republicans Overseas, said, "Frankly it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing for the people flying it, for the British residents of London and for people in the UK."[15] Nigel Farage said the demonstrations was a "step too far" and "the biggest insult to a sitting US president ever".[16]

Trump said, "I guess when they put out blimps to make me feel unwelcome, no reason for me to go to London."[17]