Former President Donald Trump has been banned from speaking this upcoming Saturday at the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile, Alabama.
Trump was scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the July 4th weekend event, until members of the USS Alabama Battleship Commission, which oversees the park, got cold feet.
“After the request was made, then there was contact with the Republican Party. 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,” commission chairman Bill Tunnell said, according to WPMI-TV.
The commissioners reportedly sent off a request for advice from state Attorney General Steve Marshall, who sent a reply back informing the commission that its request came too late for any formal statement to be made. However, the attorney general said parks may allow political speakers, provided access be “available for all political parties and candidates on an equal basis.”
The park was used for a 2012 rally when former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania was campaigning for the Republican nomination to the presidency.
“Santorum was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and that’s when the commission went to the ‘no partisan politics open to the public,’” Tunnell said.
However, one supporter said preserving the park’s status as a neutral ground is just a dodge.
“I’ll be honest, I feel some people just didn’t want it … not just didn’t want it, didn’t want President Trump,” Tea Party activist Pete Riehm told WPMI.
“If the people can’t assemble in public places, where can we assemble?”
Trump has a rally scheduled for Saturday at the Sarasota Fairgrounds in Sarasota, Florida.
Trump, who has not made many public appearances since leaving office in January, kicked off a string of speaking engagements with a rally in Ohio last weekend.
“Critical race theory is being forced on our military,” Trump said at the rally, according to The Independent.
“Gas prices are spiking. Inflation is skyrocketing and China, Russia and Iran are humiliating our country. Joe Biden is destroying our nation right before our very own eyes.”
“The number one priority for everyone who wants to save America is to pour every single ounce of energy you have into winning a gigantic victory in the midterms and 2024,” he said.
During his Ohio rally, Trump teased the prospect of running for the White House again in 2024 and maintained he had won the 2020 presidential race as well.
“We won the election twice and it’s possible we’ll have to win it a third time. It’s possible,” he said.
Trump sounded an upbeat note about the future, according to Reuters.
“We will take back the House, we will take back the Senate, and we will take back America, and we will do it soon,” he said.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.