While hundreds of thousands of Americans are expected to participate in a massive ‘March For Our Lives’ demonstration in Washington D.C. on Saturday, Donald Trump is hiding out at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
According to MSNBC producer Kyle Griffin, this marks the president’s 102nd day at one of his golf clubs over the course of his short, 14-month presidency – and it comes at a time when young people will spend the day marching right in his backyard.
Per pool, Trump has arrived at Trump International Golf Club in FL.
This is Trump’s 102nd day at a Trump golf club as president.
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— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 24, 2018
Hundreds of marches planned across America and the globe
As The Guardian pointed out, marches won’t just be spreading out across D.C. on Saturday, but they will be sweeping the globe as 800 marches are planned all over the world – from Australia to London to Tokyo.
The president, wholly in the pocket of the NRA, clearly doesn’t want anything to do with this movement or he likely would have stayed behind to join these activists. Or, at the very least, express his solidarity via social media.
Instead, the Trump Justice Department took the small if not inconsequential step of banning bump stock devices on Friday, hoping it’s enough to appease the demonstrators (hint: it’s not) and then the president jumped on the first plane to Florida.
He also took to his Twitter page to brag about the bump stock ban and lied – shocker – about former President Obama’s record on the devices:
Obama Administration legalized bump stocks. BAD IDEA. As I promised, today the Department of Justice will issue the rule banning BUMP STOCKS with a mandated comment period. We will BAN all devices that turn legal weapons into illegal machine guns.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 23, 2018
Of course, as the Toronto Star’s Daniel Dale pointed out yesterday, Obama did not make bump stocks legal during his presidency:
The Obama administration didn’t “legalize” bump stocks – they were already being sold. The Obama-era ATF decided in 2010 that bump stocks did not come under their regulatory authority. The Trump-era ATF said the same thing in 2017. pic.twitter.com/R7GVYI0hmI
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 23, 2018
Instead of standing with young people who are marching in hopes of breaking this cycle of gun violence, Trump is burying his head in a sand trap, hoping it will all eventually fade into the background and inaction will again win the day.
But that’s where Trump is wrong. Instead of hoping this will pass, he should get comfortable with the images we’re seeing all over the world on Saturday. As these young people flood the streets and social media, it’s clear they won’t be going anyway until change happens.
This is just the start.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
