BY NIMMI RAGHUNATHAN
IRVINE, CA – Southern California’s Taran Singh Brar began planning his political number four months ago. And that came to roost at Washington D.C.’s Ellipse when he inflated a 10 foot by 30 foot chicken balloon with the unmistakable golden hairdo of President Donald Trump. Planted squarely between the White House...
IRVINE, CA – Southern California’s Taran Singh Brar began planning his political number four months ago. And that came to roost at Washington D.C.’s Ellipse when he inflated a 10 foot by 30 foot chicken balloon with the unmistakable golden hairdo of President Donald Trump. Planted squarely between the White House...
and the Washington Monument, the bird immediately caught the attention of every news channel and print media reporter. And on August 9, the hashtag #TrumpChicken started trending in the US; social media was awash with chicken selfies and snark.
Off on his undeclared vacation to New Jersey, Trump missed the view from the White House. But given his known obsession with television commentary about himself, there is little chance that he did not view his air-filled likeness onscreen—Brar ensured that no channel would miss his visual protest. He says he scouted the area and studied cable and network news, before he positioned the Trump bird: a live shot of the President’s official residence could not avoid the chicken.
Brar knows camera angles. He is now working on a documentary film on the inventor of the laser, Charles Townes, and his views on science and religion. Brar himself is a Sikh and says while his faith has nothing to do with the film, he has been able to get more in touch with it as he explores Townes’ understanding of the convergence of belief and science.
Brar, 31, received his bachelor’s degree in molecular biology from UC Berkeley, where he was a Regents’ and Chancellor’s scholar. The “best college in the world,” he says was a perfect fit for him where there were avenues for him to engage in matters close to his heart – researching tech that can aid in global development in poverty stricken areas of Africa and South Asia. As a research assistant in the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, he contributed to the development of a maternal and neonatal health kit designed to save mother’s and children’s lives during childbirth and powered by solar cells.
His passion for social good informs his politics. “I am secure in my citizenship,” the quick-talking Brar says, “others don’t have that. We need to speak for them.” Growing up in a home where his physician father and business executive mother were both Democrats, he says, his first memory of being engaged in the political landscape was in his early teens when Bill Clinton beat Bob Dole for the presidency. He was in Northwood High School in Irvine at the time. By the Fall of 2004, the sense of well being was destroyed, he says when “we has a country did not learn from the Iraq war,” and elected George W Bush back to office.
But nothing has made him more upset than Trump’s electoral victory. “Racism and sexism brought down Hillary’s candidacy,” he says. On Jan. 22, he was in a protest march. In April, Brar helped launch the Chicago Tax March, where thousands demanded Trump make his tax returns public. It was here that the Trump Chicken made its first appearance and drew public attention.
Putting up the ‘Trump Chicken’, designed by Seattle artist Casey Latiolais, was no easy feat. Chicago’s permitting system was simpler, but putting up the balloon display in D.C. required permits from the National Park Service and the Secret Service. The process took four months
But for Brar, the effort was worthwhile, who says he wants to make a statement about the President being a “weak and ineffective leader” too chicken to release his taxes and “too afraid to stand up to Vladimir Putin.” What he wants: impeachment of Trump.
Brar is focusing his next move on the Putin and Russia angle and plans a “mock military parade” in the nation’s capital, with inflatable Russian weapons protecting “dozens of Dons.” While he self-funded his Trump Chicken protest, he says he would like support for his November venture. You can find Brar on Twitter: @ChickenDonnyBoy.
Off on his undeclared vacation to New Jersey, Trump missed the view from the White House. But given his known obsession with television commentary about himself, there is little chance that he did not view his air-filled likeness onscreen—Brar ensured that no channel would miss his visual protest. He says he scouted the area and studied cable and network news, before he positioned the Trump bird: a live shot of the President’s official residence could not avoid the chicken.
Brar knows camera angles. He is now working on a documentary film on the inventor of the laser, Charles Townes, and his views on science and religion. Brar himself is a Sikh and says while his faith has nothing to do with the film, he has been able to get more in touch with it as he explores Townes’ understanding of the convergence of belief and science.
Brar, 31, received his bachelor’s degree in molecular biology from UC Berkeley, where he was a Regents’ and Chancellor’s scholar. The “best college in the world,” he says was a perfect fit for him where there were avenues for him to engage in matters close to his heart – researching tech that can aid in global development in poverty stricken areas of Africa and South Asia. As a research assistant in the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, he contributed to the development of a maternal and neonatal health kit designed to save mother’s and children’s lives during childbirth and powered by solar cells.
His passion for social good informs his politics. “I am secure in my citizenship,” the quick-talking Brar says, “others don’t have that. We need to speak for them.” Growing up in a home where his physician father and business executive mother were both Democrats, he says, his first memory of being engaged in the political landscape was in his early teens when Bill Clinton beat Bob Dole for the presidency. He was in Northwood High School in Irvine at the time. By the Fall of 2004, the sense of well being was destroyed, he says when “we has a country did not learn from the Iraq war,” and elected George W Bush back to office.
But nothing has made him more upset than Trump’s electoral victory. “Racism and sexism brought down Hillary’s candidacy,” he says. On Jan. 22, he was in a protest march. In April, Brar helped launch the Chicago Tax March, where thousands demanded Trump make his tax returns public. It was here that the Trump Chicken made its first appearance and drew public attention.
Putting up the ‘Trump Chicken’, designed by Seattle artist Casey Latiolais, was no easy feat. Chicago’s permitting system was simpler, but putting up the balloon display in D.C. required permits from the National Park Service and the Secret Service. The process took four months
But for Brar, the effort was worthwhile, who says he wants to make a statement about the President being a “weak and ineffective leader” too chicken to release his taxes and “too afraid to stand up to Vladimir Putin.” What he wants: impeachment of Trump.
Brar is focusing his next move on the Putin and Russia angle and plans a “mock military parade” in the nation’s capital, with inflatable Russian weapons protecting “dozens of Dons.” While he self-funded his Trump Chicken protest, he says he would like support for his November venture. You can find Brar on Twitter: @ChickenDonnyBoy.
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