Vice President JD Vance is spending some family time in Orange County this weekend with a visit to Disneyland, according to local officials and social media posts.
Approximately 50 security officers and Disneyland employees escorted the vice president through the park, Mickey Visit reported.
Vance’s presence sparked protests. Around 100 to 150 demonstrators gathered on Harbor Boulevard near the Disneyland entrance on Friday evening, and a crowd of protesters formed again on Saturday.
Social media video showed Vance’s motorcade arriving at the Disneyland resort around 6 p.m. on Friday and the vice president walking with his family through Bayou Country at Disneyland around 10 a.m. Saturday.
The Vance party rode Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and toured Tom Sawyer Island, according to the posts. They also said Vance rode the Haunted Mansion and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and dined at the exclusive 21 Royal with his family.
Disneyland officials declined to confirm any individual plans out of respect for the privacy of all guests.
But on Friday, internet sleuths noticed temporary flight restrictions had been placed around the theme park for the weekend.
Matt Desmond, who goes by Disney Scoop Guy on Instagram, posted a social media video of a newly installed staging area tent at the entrance to Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel on Friday.
“They definitely have a staging area at the front of the Grand Californian and there’s a very heavy police presence here,” Desmond said on Instagram.
The vice president’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A weekend schedule was not posted and no fundraising events were announced.
Orange County Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento, whose office said the vice president’s advance team was in the area recently, noted the vice president’s visit comes amid the Trump administration’s continued aggressive immigration enforcement efforts, particularly in Southern California.
“I welcome any policymaker to come to our community and see for themselves how hardworking our immigrant communities are and how they make our country great,” Sarmiento, who represents the Second District, said. “It is my hope that the administration would come to the table and work with us on reversing these policies that seemed designed to crush our communities and our state.”
“I have respect for the office, but I just don’t respect their polices,” Sarmiento said.
Vance has spent a bit of time in Southern California of late.
He visited Los Angeles on official business last month, where he stood by the administration’s immigration raids and arrests and said the military presence in the area would remain. Then, Vance also toured a multi-agency Federal Joint Operations Center and a Federal Mobile Command Center and met with Marines who had been deployed to the area.
More recently, Vance was in San Diego for fundraisers and a $2,500-a-seat dinner hosted by a conservative think tank.
Earlier Friday, second lady Usha Vance visited Camp Pendleton as part of the Blue Star Books program, which donates books to military children, base libraries and Defense Department schools, to name a few.
The second lady grew up in suburban San Diego, in the community of Rancho Peñasquitos.
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, was in Texas on Friday to survey the damage from the catastrophic flooding that killed at least 120 people — with many more still missing — earlier this month.
Originally Published:
