Georgia Trump Supporters Plot Boat Parade Despite Chaotic Texas Event

Donald Trump supporters rallied in Georgia over the holiday weekend to show their favor for the president despite what happened in Texas. While organizers of the event expected a few hundred to show up to the “Great American Boat Parade,” little did they know there would be a few thousand that would attend on Lake Lanier. According to Newsweek, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources said there was anywhere from 3,000 to 4,000 vessels.

The large number makes the parade the largest ever for a boat parade. The current largest according to the Guinness World Record saw 1,080 which took place in Terengganu, Malaysia in 2014. “It went really smooth,” Kevin Goss, Georgia Department of Natural Resources Game Warden said, comparing it to the boat parade in Texas that went south for several vessels. “We haven’t received any reports of boats sinking or swamping or getting turned over.”

The Trump parade that took place in Texas went south real quick for a few attendees after their boats went underwater. The “Lake Travis Boat Parade” event started with a Facebook invite, requesting “boats of all shapes and sizes” decorated in “patriotic colors and fly as many Trump flags as she can handle” to “really make a statement!” While there was no confirmed number on how many people actually attended after 2,600 clicked the attend button, according to a New York Times story, at least four boats sank as local authorities started getting distress calls.

While the celebration in Texas was solely focused on Trump alone, the one in Georgia was changed from the original Trump theme to widen the range of people who may want to attend. John Gunter, who is one of the organizers says he wanted to see people gather in support of “general patriotism” rather than leaning to one side of two parties alone. “I did not want the parade to be tied directly to any political event or any one politician,” Gunter said. “I think our nation is in a bigger place right now and the direction that I wanted to see the event move was to support general patriotism.”

“We didn’t want to be biased and restrict everybody with the theme,” Dustin Melton, his fellow organizer added to Gunter’s statement. “So we went with Great American Boat Parade and it’s a parade that’s unbiased.” There’s no word yet on whether other states will try and host Trump parades or not.