DOWNTOWN — Holly Prindle was walking away from the lakefront Wednesday when she suddenly heard Aretha Franklin’s “Think” over a loud speaker.
She looked up and spotted a parade-style float heading down Michigan Avenue, emblazoned with big, bold letters reading “TRUMP and “BUILD THE WALL.”
Prindle was confused as to why the float’s creator chose this venue to display his political statement.
“You’re in Chicago,” Prindle, 41, found herself saying out loud.
She doesn’t think it represents the city or who the people in this part of the country are, she said.
Nevertheless, a GMC Yukon XL with a Michigan license plate pulled the Trump Unity Bridge up and down Michigan Avenue and around downtown.
The mission of the Trump Unity Bridge, according to its website, is to “create unity through education to all Americans bridging the gap by inspiring choice of positive messages seen on the Trump Unity Bridge.”
Those “positive messages” include “Build The Wall,” “Drain The Swamp,” and “America 1st.”
Rob Cortis, the creator of the “unity bridge,” went live on Facebook while Downtown. A bevy of Trump’s signature “Make America Great Again” hats filled his dashboard.
As he drove, he pointed out different places, including the Art Institute of Chicago.
“Hey, Art Institute,” he said. “Check out Trump mobile art. Art on wheels. The Trump Unity Bridge. Unite America.”
Cortis played John Mellencamp’s “ROCK In The USA” and “God Bless America” while driving.
At the end of the video, Cortis’ SUV gets pulled over on Michigan Avenue by a police officer. In the video, the officer asks Cortis to turn the music down, but he says that playing the music is his “religious beliefs.”
“I understand, but your music can’t be blasting,” the officer responds.
Haley Wilson, a 23-year-old Albany Park resident, said she’d expect to see the float in her small Indiana hometown, but not Chicago.
“I thought it was a f—ing joke, honestly,” she said. “I feel like we’re better than that.”
Biju Nair, 53 who lives Downtown, took a photo of the bridge as it passed him on Michigan Avenue.
“It’s annoying,” he said.
A video on Twitter also shows the Trump Unity Bridge parked outside Trump International Hotel & Tower.
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