President Trump's "Salute to America" 4th of July bash on the National Mall will have an uninvited guest: the "baby Trump" balloon. Feminist anti-war group Code Pink was granted a National Park Service permit to display the 20-foot-tall balloon meant to look like an angry, diapered version of the POTUS, but the Park Service denied the group's request to fill the balloon with helium; it can only be filled with cold air, per CNN. The group is objecting to that decision, per Politico, insisting it will only lift the balloon two feet off the ground—well within the Park Service's 45-foot height limit—but organizers need a waiver from the FAA's Flight Standard District Office to get around it. It is attempting to get one, per a press release. Code Pink decries Trump's Independence Day event as an attempt to politicize and militarize the holiday.
"You certainly can’t say that a 20-foot-tall balloon is going to interfere with Trump’s Air Force One and the Navy’s Blue Angels," logistics manager Tighe Barry says in a statement that also takes issue with the Park Service's requirement that the balloon not be displayed within Trump's line of sight from the Lincoln Memorial, where he'll be delivering a speech. "We had requested a space on the large, empty expanse at the base of the Washington Monument that would not have obstructed anyone’s view but would have allowed the president to see the baby. Instead we were only given location options that were outside the line of sight," the group says. In addition to Code Pink's protest, the Washington Post reports that more than a dozen other groups and individuals have requested permits for National Mall events on July 4, from group meditations to preaching to making cards for the troops to flag burning. (Trump's event, meanwhile, will feature a potent military presence.)
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