America is great. Trump is disgusting.
Anybody but Trump.
Iowans dump Trump.
Those are just a handful of the messages that garnered national headlines after they were plastered across the sky by airplanes during the Rose Bowl parade over the weekend.
The immediate question for many people was, who did this? The answer did not come as a surprise.
Stan Pate, a millionaire real estate developer from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, quickly came forward as the man behind the skywriting. Alabamians who have been political observers in recent years will remember Pate as the man who paid for a banner declaring “IMPEACH CORRUPT ALABAMA GOVERNOR BOB RILEY” to fly over the 2010 college football national championship game.
Riley got on Pate’s bad side after proposing $1 billion in tax hikes. Trump did it by, well, just being himself.
“He needs to go back to one of his tall towers and build buildings and whatever else he does. He’s a despicable man,” Pate told CBS News.
“Quite frankly, if it was Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton, I would vote for Secretary Clinton,” he said. “I will accept anybody but Trump.”
Pate says he is not committed to a candidate in the 2016 race, but did donate $5,200 to the campaign of Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)
“This is not a Marco Rubio effort, I have not talked to anybody in that campaign since the day I sat down with Sen. Rubio in Birmingham Alabama,” he said. “Just because you built a tall building with your name on it doesn’t mean respect… He’s been a dictator, we’re not looking for a dictator. This is a guy when he looks in the mirror, he sees the greatest man that’s ever walked the earth, and he’s wrong.”
Pate’s skywriting caught the attention of political pundits around the country, who noted that the type of spectacle Trump has become known for was used against him in this particular instance.
“If we’ve learned anything from Donald Trump in the last nine months its the value of earned media — of free press — and how to manage that, how to manipulate that, how to take advantage of that.” – CNN analyst Ana Navarro said on Sunday’s episode of CNN’s State of the Union.
Pate says he was compelled to pay for the skywriting after growing weary of Trump’s rhetoric, which he believes is offensive to various groups.
“I’m tired of listening to Trump. I’m tired of it. Just look at what he did to Megyn (Kelly). That’s just despicable,” he said. “Listen to how he’s attacking Hillary Clinton – despicable.”
“He spews hate, not only on every candidate, he spews it on women, Latinos, Muslims and the list goes on,” he continued. “And it’s just time we respond and say this is not what we expect out of a candidate running for president. Donald Trump is embarrassing to the country, and he’s embarrassing to me.”
Pate’s skywriting efforts were meant to promote his new website, AnybodyButTrump.us, and he says he has more publicity stunts planned ahead of the Iowa caucuses, which take place February 1st.
“This is not over,” he pledged. “This is just beginning.”
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