Trump Alabama Rally Canceled Over ‘Partisan’ Concerns

If Donald Trump is to hold his “Save America” rally in Alabama on Fourth of July weekend, he’ll need to find a different venue. Citing “partisan” concerns, Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile has nixed the event, which was to be held on Saturday. The U.S.S. Alabama memorial and museum is docked in Mobile Bay.

“After the request was made, then there was contact with the Republican Party,” park commissioner Bill Tunnell told NBC 15 News. “They contacted us and then it became apparent that it was going to be a partisan political event, rather than just a patriotic event planned for that evening.”

Trump is holding a series of “Save America” rallies, having staged the first one on Saturday in Ohio. If that event is any indication, these rallies will feature Trump playing his greatest hits, including, “Sleepy Joe,” “Lock Her Up!” and “Witch Hunt!”

Tunnell said that in 2012 the park commissioners decided to prohibit political events at the memorial, after presidential candidate Rick Santorum held a rally there. The Santorum appearance “was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” he said. Commissioners had asked the state attorney general to weigh in on the matter, but he said there was not enough time to issue a formal opinion.

It’s true that Alabama is a deeply red state that Trump twice won easily, but on the other hand the U.S.S. Alabama is, after all, a World War II memorial. In 1944 the U.S.S. Alabama supported Allied landings on the island of Leyte in the Philippines during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, which is the largest naval battle in U.S. history, and possibly world history.

A local Tea Party activist said he was disappointed by the cancelation, telling NBC 15, “If people can’t assemble in public places, where can we assemble?”