Trump ‘baby blimp’ going to Washington state for Pence visit

An inflatable blimp bearing a resemblance to President Trump is heading to Spokane, Wash., next week for a visit by Vice President Pence.

One of several Trump “baby blimps” will appear in Washington state for several hours near a campaign event Tuesday for Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers’s (R-Wash.) reelection bid that Pence is headlining, according to the Spokesman Review.

{mosads}The blimp is being flown on behalf of Backbone Campaign, a local Democratic-aligned group supporting the congresswoman’s Democratic opponent, Lisa Brown, according to the group’s Facebook page.

Washington’s 5th District, which McMorris Rodgers has represented since 2005, is rated as “lean Republican” by the nonpartisan election handicappers at the Cook Political Report.

The version of the blimp headed for Washington state is a replica of an original that was commissioned and flown during Trump’s visit to the United Kingdom earlier this year, which was met with heavy protests from Londoners.

Other activist groups around the country have used the blimp in their own protests in the months following Trump’s visit to the U.K.

In New Jersey, activists have obtained two replicas of the Trump baby blimp and plan to fly them outside the president’s golf resort in Bedminster.

Another version was flown in West Palm Beach, Fla., last week at a rally in support of storm recovery efforts on the island of Puerto Rico, an effort for which the Trump administration has faced sharp criticism.

Earlier this month, a progressive PAC began selling miniaturized versions of the blimp, which also depicts a Russian flag on the balloon’s arm.

“Trump is a giant baby and he’s a baby owned by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, which is even worse,” Mad Dog PAC chair Claude Taylor said earlier in September. “I’m not trying to be subtle here, we’re sending a very direct message that president trump is an asset of a hostile foreign government.”