Boaters For Trump Out In Full Force To Celebrate President Trump’s Birthday!

Here are more details, as reported by the Tampa Bay Times:

Trump flags will wave alongside the Stars and Stripes on Sunday as boaters take to Florida’s Intracoastal Waterway for a dual celebration — the president’s birthday and Flag Day.

“When Trump can’t have his rallies, these people are taking to the water rallying for him,” said Sherri Gerland of Apollo Beach, who is organizing Tampa’s boat parade.

Billed as “Trump Flotillas” or “Trumptillas,” the parades are a way for voters to show their support for President Donald Trump while practicing social distancing to help stop the spread of coronavirus. Parades are planned in Pensacola, Miami, Jacksonville and other cities along the Intracoastal Waterway, the inshore boat path that wraps around the Florida peninsula and Panhandle.

The Tampa parade starts at 11 a.m. Sunday near Beer Can Island off Apollo Beach. Gerland, 60, said she’s not sure how many people will show up. More than 500 have responded to her Facebook event posting but she heard from Jacksonville that a boat parade there in March drew three times the turnout expected.

Boats will navigate north from Beer Can Island toward Davis Islands before making their way south around MacDill Air Force Base to American Legion Post 138, Gerland said. The parade is scheduled to break up around 2 p.m.

Campaign events, virtual and by phone, also are planned for Trump’s likely opponent in the Nov. 3 presidential election, former Vice President Joe Biden. TJ Ducklo, national spokesman for the Biden campaign, mocked the Trumptillas in a statement, saying, “this country is looking forward to pitching him overboard so they can get the leadership they deserve from Joe Biden.”

Gerland got the idea to organize a local boat parade when she heard the story of Carlos Gavidia of Jupiter, who was interviewed on Fox News in May after his property-owners association forced him to remove a Trump flag from his boat. To protest the rule, Gavidia paid $7,000 to have his boat wrapped in a decal showing an American eagle and the word “Trump," Politico reported.

Gavidia promoted a Trump boat parade on Facebook and at least 1,500 boats showed up.

"What a bold statement to make," Gerland said.

Trump has acknowledged some of the boat parades on Twitter.

Gerland said a 60-foot Marquis yacht will lead the Tampa parade. She’ll be riding on a 26-foot bay boat owned by her 50-year-old significant other, Pete Gardner.

People with land vessels are getting in on the act, too, Sunday. Trump Team 2020 Florida, a group with more than 20 chapters statewide, is helping organize at least 12 Trump parades for boats, trucks, motorcycles and golf carts. The golf cart parade is happening in the Villages, the largest retirement community in the U.S. At the golf cart parade and others organized by Trump Team 2020 Florida, participants will be able to register to vote.

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The Detroit News also reported Boaters For Trump celebrating in Michigan:

Hundreds of private boats, including an 80-foot tug, paraded from northern Macomb County to Detroit Saturday in anticipation of President Donald Trump's 74th birthday on Sunday.

About 200 boats pushed off from MacRay Harbor at 1 p.m. and headed south to the Nautical Mile, picking up boats along the way. Decorated boats as big as 60 feet joined from Grosse Pointe Yacht Club and were scheduled to pass Jefferson Beach Marina area at 2:30 p.m. and then proceed to the Ambassador Bridge on the Detroit River.

Sailing were members of the Michigan Trump Republicans, Michigan Conservative Coalition and residents who wanted to celebrate the president's birthday Sunday, which is also Flag Day.

It's the first event of its kind in Michigan, said Matt Seely, MCC spokesman.

Seely, Sherman Rogers, Rachel Keena created the Facebook event page and eight days later, nearly 5,000 people responded to going. The event grew attracting the Trump Unity Bridge, which led a land motorcade on Jefferson in tandem with the parade on water.

"We just posted and the thing exploded. Now we have three seaplanes and helicopter following," Seely said. "It’s kind of an American tradition and ... for a brief moment, it's to take all the difficulties we’ve been through the last three months away, and a sweet moment of celebration."

Lisa McClain, left, of Romeo, and co-organizer Rachel Keena, of Oakland Township, take a selfie as they leave MacRay Marina. McClain is a candidate for U.S. Congress in Michigan's 10th district. (Photo: Todd McInturf, The Detroit News)
Rosanne Ponkowski, president of Michigan's Trump Republicans, said there were no second thoughts of holding the event during the pandemic because sailors are outside.

"There have been several flotillas supporting the President in Florida and this is an offshoot of those," Ponkowski said. "Sunday is the President's birthday and we felt it was a great way to wish him Happy Birthday and a terrific way for Michiganders to celebrate the end of the lockdown we have been suffering through."