OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 17: A 33-feet tall inflatable Trump Chicken ballon is displayed during a run test by trumpchicken.org a day before President's Day at Lake Merritt in Oakland, Calif., on Sunday, Feb. 17, 2019. The ballon has appeared in several demonstrations since 2017 when President Donald Trump refused to make his tax records public, he's too chicken for that, Roger Hu said. This (Trump) is our national emergency. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
When former President Donald Trump arrives in the Bay Area on Thursday for a fundraising event with local tech billionaires, he will be greeted by a giant chicken caricature of himself.
The 33-foot-tall chicken balloon is done up with a golden comb-over and thick eyebrows. On Thursday, it will sport a black-and-white striped prison jumpsuit as anti-Trump protesters sail him around the San Francisco Bay.
Danelle Morton, who calls herself the “head chicken tender,” said she and her team have hired a fishing boat to carry the chicken from Fisherman’s Wharf to the Golden Gate Bridge and back because that’s where the balloon will be visible to those attending the fundraiser.
Attendees paid as much as $300,000 for dinner for a single person or $500,000 for a couple. It is hosted by tech billionaire David Sacks, his wife Jacqueline Sacks and venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya.
“We are amazed that they’re holding a multimillion dollar fundraiser for him after he’s been convicted of 34 felonies,” she said. “Should a criminal really run the country? Somebody needs to stand up and say no.”
Morton first brought out a Trump chicken in 2017 and used it throughout his first term. When Trump left office in 2021 after losing the presidential election to Joe Biden, Morton put the four inflatable chicken Trumps she has into storage, she said. Now, they’re making a reappearance as Trump campaigns for the presidency once again.
Originally published at Caelyn Pender, Julia Prodis Sulek