Woman who commissioned anti-Trump sky banners over Mar-a-Lago calls former president ‘a dictator’

A woman who arranged for two critical banners to be flown near to Mr Trump’s residence in Florida, has explained why she did the stunt, describing the former president as a “dictator”.

The unnamed woman, who works for an aircraft company, told HuffPost that she was looking out her window one day recently when she thought: “Wouldn’t it be funny to skywrite a giant message attacking Donald Trump?”

After looking into the idea and discovering it was too expensive for her budget, she instead arranged for two sky banners to be flown near to Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida instead.

One of her banners, which read “Convict Trump and Lock Him Up”, flew over Mar-a-Lago on Friday, while another saying “GOP Grow a Spine and Expel Trump” floated over the Daytona International Speedway during practice sessions ahead of the race.

The banners were flown amid the former president’s Senate impeachment trial, where he was acquitted of inciting the Capitol riots by senators on Saturday afternoon, even though a bipartisan majority – 57 to 43 – voted to convict him. A total of 67 senators was required for conviction.

Speaking about the Senate’s decision to acquit Mr Trump of impeachment, for the second time in just over a year, the woman said “it was expected yet infuriating,” but added that her banners, which cost $945 (£680) an hour, were “absolutely worth it.”

She said that she was never really politically active in the past, but that “2020 really got me, and the pandemic took the cake.”

She added: “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. When Trump started talking about a third term and then started a chant at a rally of ’12 more years,′ I thought: ‘That’s it. That’s a dictator.’”

The woman said she was speaking anonymously because she did not want to be “harassed by Trumpers”.

However, Remy Colin, the CEO of Daytona Beach-based Aerial Messages, confirmed to HuffPost that the woman commissioned the two latest banners attacking Mr Trump.

Her banners were two of many that were flown over the former president’s Florida residence in recent weeks, and Mr Colin confirmed that one that read, “Trump Worst President Ever”, was also flown by his company.

The Times reported last month that the unnamed man who commissioned the banner asked Mr Colin to keep his identity a secret because his “family members fear for their safety.”

However, he added that he commissioned the stunt because he wanted “to show people that they can tell Donald Trump what they think of him – and that their emperor has no clothes.”

Mr Colin said that his shop is prepared to fly banners for people of all political persuasions, and revealed that the company flew multiple pro-Trump signs in Florida prior to the 2016 election.

However, he said that despite his non-partisan approach, he still gets complaints for flying anti-Trump banners, adding: “I listen to what they have to say, then I explain that we do banners from both sides.

“One guy was telling me how irresponsible it was to inflame political attitudes with the anti-Trump messages. I’m listening politely, but I’m thinking to myself, ‘What the hell? Your side just stormed the Capitol.’”