It’s a story of blimps, of protests, one-upmanship and of free speech claims. This is truly a story of our times involving unpopular world leaders and rather more popular local ones. There was a Donald Trump blimp and then there was a Sadiq Khan (Mayor of London) blimp; the reaction to both being quite different. With the previous exchanges between the Donald and Khan forming a backdrop, the blimp story is even more interesting.
Many mental health professionals the world over have likened Donald Trump’s lack of impulse control, instinct to tell convenient but transparent lies, self-delusion and temper tantrums to the behavior of the average toddler. An inflatable blimp featuring Trump as a diaper clad baby floating over London when Donald came visiting was a telling indictment of the many perceived flaws of the POTUS.
This was a part of the many anti-Trump marches and protests that greeted POTUS on his England visit. While some were just amused at the sight of the blimp, others were there to support a serious protest. Many turned up to oppose the perceived tyranny of the Trump regime, his personal racism, misogyny and Islamophobia.
Predictably Donald Trump who is famous for having an extremely fragile ego, was furious about the protests and particularly the unflattering blimp. He said that he would stay away from London on this trip. Many Americans promptly responded by asking to borrow the blimp; to try and keep Trump out of Washington. “Lucky London” was the sense we got from many tweets published at the time the balloon went up in July 2018.
Segments of the British public; particularly alt-right and white supremacist groups are quite vocal in their support of Trump. One self-styled British nationalist decided to send up a blimp of the London mayor dressed in a yellow bikini with a snarly face. This was a protest meant ostensibly to call attention to city crime rates and to criticise Khan’s “absolute failure as London Mayor”.
Khan had previously authorised the Trump balloon event as a legitimate form of peaceful protest; which Trump supporters were clearly resentful of. The organisers of the Khan balloon event quite seemed to have expected that Khan would not permit a similarly unflattering balloon of himself to be flown over his own city. Khan’s approval of the proposal appeared to have taken the wind out of their sails (pun intended).
The Khan balloon was supposed to be a protest against the mayor, but the 'protest' drew little support. There were few people who turned up for the event; those that did appeared to be Trump supporters; so the event as a protest against the mayor seemed to have been a damp squib.
As this tweet indicates, many simply did not understand the meaning of the Khan blimp beyond its allusion to the Trump blimp. The diaper and snarling face indicate the toddler mentality, the small hands are an allusion to one of the POTUS’s pet peeves, the cell phone indicates the compulsive tweeting habit, the spray tan alludes to his personal vanity the snarling face indicates his frequent outbursts and temper tantrums. The purport of Khan in a bikini was however difficult to understand beyond attempted ridicle.
Many Americans have loved the baby blimp idea – both as a form of protest as well as because of how much it seems to enrage their ultra-thin-skinned president. These balloons have now found their way to locations including outside a Trump golf course.
While Trump’s reaction to his blimp was furious and petulant, Sadiq Khan responded with characteristic tongue in cheek British humour: "If people want to spend their Saturday looking at me in a yellow bikini they’re welcome to do so – I don’t really think yellow’s my colour though." Clearly advantage Khan here.
Do you have something interesting you would like to share? Write to us at [email protected]
