As Donald Trump met with supporters for a rally in San Fransisco, he was greeted by the Trump Chicken balloon, a 33-foot-tall inflatable rooster with a golden comb-over and sporting a black and white prison jumpsuit.
The Trump chicken sailed briefly around the Bay’s Pier 39 before setting sail for the Golden Gate Bridge, circling Crissy Fields, and heading back to Trump’s event before finally roosting at a nearby harbor. The chicken’s voyage was intended to remind Californians that Trump was now a “convicted felon,” a fact most Americans would find hard to ignore even without the feathered fledgling’s parade.
Trump’s rally, estimated to be about 300 strong, was quietly countered by a handful of human protestors as well, who settled in on Marina Boulevard to wave signs labeling Trump as a “fascist thug” and others merely saying that “Trump is a disgrace.”
Danielle Morton, the keeper of the Trump chicken, said that she was “amazed” that Californians would hold a multimillion-dollar fundraising campaign after he had been “convicted of 34 felonies.” It’s a sentiment echoed by many on the left who had thought the guilty verdict would yield a far different outcome.
Passing motorists supported Trump, honking as they drove past the gathering. Some of the cars blared Trump-themed songs like “Trump Won, and We Know It” as they passed the crowd. One motorist took the time to hurl insults and curse words from the window of his car, but the majority of vehicles, including a San Fransisco Fire Department truck. Showed overwhelming support for Trump.
One Trump supporter noted that the impressive support for the former President and the lack of counter-protestors indicated a broader problem of voters’ lack of enthusiasm for Biden. She called it pathetic and observed, “It doesn’t show much support for Joe Biden, does it?”
But the chicken’s flight was anything but certain as inflation challenges once again hampered the left. According to Morton, the chicken was difficult to blow up because of the fierce winds in the bay. The chicken stubbornly refused to stay upright in the 20 mph winds and collapsed repeatedly during its parade when faced with 25 mph wind gusts on the water.
Like Trump’s court cases, the chicken continued to topple and fall throughout the journey.
Trump’s visit was scheduled a week after a jury convicted him of 34 felony counts related to hush-money payments during his 2016 presidential campaign. At the rally, Trump supporters condemned the verdict as a deterioration of the nation’s legal system.
Mark Zulim, a 64-year-old from Oakland, expressed his frustration, calling the trial “lawfare” and a blatant attempt to eliminate a candidate supported by millions of Americans and infringing on their rights to choose their preferred candidate.
It wasn’t the giant chicken’s first rodeo. In 2017, he nested in the Ellipse, the park just south of the White House. At the time, he wasn’t wearing his prison-issued uniform.
Taran Singh Brar, an artist and documentary filmmaker from Ladera Ranch, California, created the giant chicken. It took four months of planning and acquiring permits from the National Park Service. Brar aimed to make a statement about the president being a “weak and ineffective leader,” criticizing Trump’s reluctance to release his tax returns, confront Vladimir Putin, and his handling of North Korea.
Trump wasn’t there to witness the rise of the chicken in 2017, but Brar said he knew the President would “get wind” of the display through social media.
The chicken has had several iterations, appearing periodically at protests. During the tax marches across American cities in April of 2017, protesters demonstrated against Trump’s refusal to release his full tax returns, and the chicken was released to float again.
Morton, the current chicken handler, fitted her chicken with a black and white prison jumpsuit in the summer of 2017, sailing it around Alcatraz to protest a Trump rally. His prison uniform bore the label of inmate number “00045,” and the ship he sailed on was labeled “Alcatraz Prison Transport.”
Polling consistently shows that Trump’s conviction has barely impacted his supporters and has had just as little sway with independent voters. Morton’s fowl stunt proves that, once again, Democrats are counting their chickens before they are hatched.
