Thousands of boaters are planning to descend upon Tampa, Florida, in support of former President Donald Trump in lieu of the canceled annual boat parade “Gasparilla.”
The Gasparilla Pirate Festival, which has taken place almost every year since 1904, has been canceled due to coronavirus fears, prompting Trump supporters to hold their own event and dub it “Trumparilla”, according to Fox 13 Tampa Bay.
“We wanted it to be patriotic. We wanted to let the world know there’s a segment of the population that wants to live our lives,” Cliff Gephart, the parade’s organizer, said about the Trump rally.
“Trumparilla” is set to take place on April 17, and Gephart says roughly 2,500 boaters have expressed interest.
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The local Young Republicans club is also planning a parade that same day and may end up combining it with “Trumparilla,” according to the chapter’s president, Jake Hoffman.
“The city decided to host a Super Bowl boat parade that was able to be done safely, so in our eyes, there’s no reason why we can’t host a Gasparilla boat parade in the same fashion,” Hoffman said.
Florida has been home to several pro-Trump boat parades over the past couple years, including during the 2020 presidential election cycle, where hundreds and sometimes thousands of boats were a regular occurrence on the waterways.
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Trump carried the state of Florida in 2020 by roughly 3 points and received almost 5.7 million votes from Floridians.
