Culture

Naked Donald Trump Statues Have Been Popping Up In Major Cities Around The US

There are some things you can't unsee.

by Tom Clift  19 August 2016

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Well, we can’t unsee that.

With the US presidential election just a few months away, anti-Trump protests are becoming more and more common. But few will stay with you, haunting you to the end of your days, like this one from anarchist collective INDECLINE.

Hoping to strip away The Donald’s brash public persona, the group commissioned a Las Vegas-based artist named Ginger to create a series of life-size statues that depicted the would-be President in all his fleshy, orange glory. Two things are missing: his clothes and his testicles – and despite his claims to the contrary, things appear to be lacking in another department as well.

The statues have appeared in parks and on street corners in New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco and Cleveland.

The project, dubbed “The Emperor Has No Balls,” was inspired by demagogues throughout history who made a habit of erecting statues of themselves in public places. “Like it or not, Trump is a larger-than-life figure in world culture at the moment,” an anonymous INDECLINE spokesperson told The Washington Post. “Looking back in history, that’s how those figures were memorialized and idolized in their time — with statues.”

Speaking to the same publication, Ginger said that the idea was to give the statues a “constipated look.” The artist has previously designed monsters for horror films and haunted houses, and described Trump as “just yet another monster.”

Unsurprisingly, the statues have already starting to disappear. After one was removed from Union Square Park in New York, a spokesperson for the Parks Department told Gothamist that “NYC Parks stands firmly against any unpermitted erection in city parks, no matter how small.”