The GoFundMe initiative seeking to bring a giant baby Trump balloon to El Paso, Texas, for the president’s upcoming visit has exceeded its goal. As of Sunday, it has raised more than $4,068.
Laura Valdez, who created the fundraiser, wrote on her Facebook page on Friday: “Baby Trump is in transit on his way to our beautiful city!” She added that El Paso’s Democratic Party association did most of the organizing.
According to the GoFundMe page, “The cost will cover shipping from California to El Paso” as well as filing fees. Any extra money will be donated to a nonprofit group that supports immigrants.
An organization called the “Baby Trump Tour” is responsible for the baby Trump balloon. The initiative was inspired by the giant baby Trump balloon that flew close to the UK Parliament in London in 2018 while President Donald Trump was visiting. The site has a service called the “Baby Trump Adoption Service,” a rental form available on the site, that stipulates that renting Baby Trump costs about $1,500.
Jim Girvan, a 65-year-old man from New Jersey, is behind the Baby Trump Tour. “It’s all about pushing back against him and showing people what [Trump] really is,” he told Newsday last October.
Baby Trump will take part in a protest during Trump’s first 2020 campaign rally in El Paso, Texas, a strategic choice as the city sits along the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump’s border wall is still being negotiated between the Democratic and Republican parties. Beto O’Rourke, a former congressman from Texas and a possible 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, wrote in a Medium post on Friday that he plans to attend the event in El Paso. O’Rourke wrote in his post: “With El Paso as the backdrop, he will claim that this city of immigrants was dangerous before a border fence was built here in 2008.”
Trump’s rally will be held at the El Paso Coliseum on Monday, Feb. 11 at 7 p.m. Several items are prohibited from inside the stadium, including balloons.
