The perfect symbol for a deflated resistance.
The Museum of London has acquired the famous “Trump Baby” blimp that caricatured Donald Trump as an oversized infant, clutching a smartphone. The blimp cost £16,000 to create, and was funded through an online crowdfunding campaign; it was first flown over London’s Parliament Square in 2018 to mark Trump’s official visit to the UK, and quickly became a common sight during protests against Donald Trump’s administration. Museum of London director Sharon Ament stated: “By collecting the baby blimp we can mark the wave of feeling that washed over the city that day and capture a particular moment of resistance, a feeling still relevant today as we live through these exceptionally challenging times—that ultimately shows Londoners banding together in the face of extreme adversity.” I agree that the blimp certainly belongs in a museum, as a monument to an era of depressingly deflated protest art, obsessed with playground insults like “small hands,” defined by lazy caricatures like Alec Baldwin’s tired impersonation on SNL, and the color orange. In the last four years, every single caricature and comedic criticism of Trump has either repeated some variation of “orange baby,” or simply quoted the man, verbatim; it’s been an easy era for late-night hosts, and an excruciating time to be a viewer.
