A few dozen people were gathered in Monnish Park protesting Online Cigarettes Store USA the president's visit to the Alabama-LSU football game a half-mile away and holding various anti-Trump signs when a disapproving man approached the helium-balloon with a knife and slashed an 8-foot-long gash in its back. There were still two hours to kickoff in the college town when "Baby Trump" quickly deflated out and the balloon-stabbing suspect attempted to flee the scene, organizers said. Tuscaloosa police said in a statement that officers witnessed the incident which led them to arrest Hoyt Deau Hutchinson, 32, and charge him with felony first degree criminal mischief. He was booked into the Tuscaloosa County Jail and held on a $2,500 bond. The slashing appears to have been premeditated as Hutchinson posted a Facebook Live video just hours before the incident saying he was "going down [there] to make a scene ... I'm shaking I'm so mad right now," he said. "I'm fixin’ to pop this balloon, without a doubt." It wasn’t Donald Trump who released the promised military aid to Ukraine, but the State Department Newport Cigarettes Shop, after lawyers determined that the White House freeze on the funds was illegal, several sources have told Bloomberg.
Trump has claimed he released the aid on September 11. But five sources told Bloomberg that $141 million of the money was actually authorized to be released several days earlier after lawyers determined that the White House Office of Management and Budget and, therefore, the president, had no legal standing to block the funds. The decision was outlined in a classified memo to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, according to Bloomberg.
The information severely undercuts Trump’s insistence that there was no quid pro quo for military aid when Newport box 100s cigarettes he pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a July phone call to launch an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son. Trump has pointed to the fact that he released the aid before a probe was begun. But Bloomberg now reports that Trump was no longer in control of disbursement when the money was released.