Linkmeyer told ABC affiliate WCPO that he's pilloried countless political figures over the years; the float he showed off on Sunday was intended to be a playful joke, he said.
"Could have had Donald Trump in the electric chair," he said. "It was a toss-up."
"It's all in fun," he added to the station. "Laughter is the best medicine in life and this country needs more laughter - and the people that are offended by it, I'm sorry. Don't come to the parade next time."
Not everyone in the Ohio River town 55km west of Cincinnati finds Linkmeyer's humour funny.
Penny Britton, a mother-of-five who has lived in Aurora with her husband for more than a decade, was outraged by the float, which she called "disgusting" and "racist".
"I know a half-dozen minority children that were marching in that parade and even more sitting on the sidewalk watching it go by and this is the message were sending to our children?" she added. "I don't see how anyone could look at the statue on the float and not say it was racist."
She added: "I wouldn't care if it was Donald Trump in the electric chair and Hillary pulling the switch - it's not okay."
Britton didn't attend the parade; but as soon as she saw photos of the float, she made phone calls and sent emails to Mayor Donnie Hastings, the parade committee and the Aurora Lions Club, which organises the parade. She hasn't heard back from anyone of them, but the Mayor's office and the Lions Club both released statements following the parade.
Britton said the only response she received came from people sending her nasty messages on Facebook after she posted a photo of the float and spoke out about it to local media.
"People have been sending me hateful messages for several days now," she said. "They're telling me I don't belong here, and that if I don't like it I can leave. People have told me this is why they don't like it when outsiders move to their town and I've been here 10 years."
Unsettled by the hateful messages, Britton said she and her husband are now sleeping with a shotgun beside their bed.
"The KKK marched in the parade until the 80s," Britton noted. "This town has history that goes back for generations of racism and bigotry. It's something that nobody likes to talk about."
She added that some students at her son's high school drive pick-up trucks outfitted with Confederate flags.
The theme of this year's Aurora Farmers Fair parade: "Celebrating the Past, Embracing the Future."
In a statement, the Aurora Lions Club expressed regret for including a display that "offended some viewers."
"The parade is a public venue which does not reflect the views of the Aurora Lions Club," the statement read. "As a member of a worldwide service organisation, we are proud and standby our record of service to this community. We appreciate the high levels of support and the esteem given to us by our citizens. We will continue to do our best to live up to their standards. We hope the political circus of this year's election stays with the national media."
According to parade regulations, fair officials "reserve the right to reject or evict any entry from the parade line-up that they deem unsuitable".
In a statement, Hastings, the Mayor, called the Farmers Fair "the pinnacle of our city's year" and noted that city officials are not involved in selecting float participants.
"We are disappointed that the actions of a few individuals have taken the focus away from what was otherwise a very successful 108th Aurora Farmers Fair," his statement said. "The Aurora Lions Club is the leading charitable organisation in our City. The City of Aurora refuses to believe that this particular float is in anyway a reflection of the Aurora Lions Club or its members.
"The imagery portrayed by the float is simply not consistent with the values of our citizens or who we want to be as a city."
But at least one local official - at-large city councillor Patrick Schwing - said Aurora has nothing to apologise for and blamed the controversy on "a lot of whining and crying".
He said people "can't walk down the street" anymore without offending someone. Schwing also dismissed the idea that the float might send the wrong message to children and minorities, before raising his voice and declaring: "I'm not a racist!"
"Nobody hates blacks, and yet Obama is telling us we hate blacks because we're white and it's bulls***," he said.
"I don't see how there's any thing racist involved with the float," he added. "I didn't even see the the little black thing at the front that people are bitching about until afterwards. Nobody even noticed it."
