HALF-BAKED MISTAKE

Ben and Jerry’s Co-Founder Humiliates Trump Outside His House

Ben Cohen has gone from selling ice cream to humiliating the president with a new installation.

The co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream has unveiled a new addition to the National Mall: an unflattering statue of President Donald Trump.

Ben Cohen, 75, took aim at the president’s proposed missile defense system, dubbed the “Golden Dome,” by installing a statue depicting a seemingly fearful Trump holding a hole-riddled golden dome like an umbrella, as water streams from model ICBMs overhead.

“You’ve heard about the guy talking about the golden dome,” Cohen said in a video posted on social media ahead of the event. “Well, he had it wrong. It’s really a hole in [Trump’s] dome. That’s right, lots of holes in the dude’s gold dome.”

A spokesperson for the group behind the statue told the Daily Beast the monument is meant to critique the 79-year-old Trump’s “dangerously destabilizing” Golden Dome Defense Project, which will supposedly detect, track, and intercept inbound missiles.

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Experts have repeatedly warned that the project—beyond being wildly expensive for the American taxpayer—risks igniting an arms race in space. Elon Musk’s SpaceX is reportedly the frontrunner to win a coveted contract worth billions to develop a vital part of the project.

“With an estimated cost of more than $4 trillion, advocates argue that resources would be better used to help working families struggling with the rising cost of housing, health care, and education,” said the spokesman, Edward Erikson.

The total cost of a Golden Dome has varied wildly. On the expensive end, an analysis by the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, estimated that a robust Golden Dome architecture could cost about $3.6 trillion over 20 years, reports the Federal News Network.

The White House says it can be constructed for a still-pricey $175 billion.

White House Spokesperson Davis Ingle decried Cohen’s new statue as a symptom of so-called “TDS” in a statement to the Daily Beast.

“Trump Derangement Syndrome is a sick and incurable disease that has rotted the brains of many people,” he wrote. “President Trump will never waver in fighting for and protecting the American people.”

Cohen, an outspoken Trump critic, was joined by Democratic Sen. Nina Turner and national security experts, researchers, and physicists for the unveiling of the statue, which symbolizes “a defense system that fails under real-world conditions.”

The ice cream entrepreneur and his co-founder, Jerry Greenfield, have long been outspoken on social justice issues and have closely aligned their brand with the causes they champion, something the Vermont-based founders say Unilever vowed to uphold when it purchased Ben & Jerry’s for $326 million in 2000.

FROZEN OUT

‘Silenced’ Anti-Trump Ben & Jerry’s Co-Founder Quits

Harry Thompson

However, the pair have repeatedly clashed with the British company since. Greenfield resigned as an ambassador after 47 years at the company in September, alleging that “Ben & Jerry’s has been silenced, sidelined for fear of upsetting those in power.”

For his part, Cohen told The Guardian in October that Unilever was “corporate butt kissing” Trump and has launched a campaign to “Free Ben & Jerry’s” from the company’s grasp.

In May, Cohen also made headlines after he was among several protesters dragged out of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s budget hearing.

“Congress pays for bombs that kill kids in Gaza!” Cohen can be heard saying in footage from the incident. He was then forcibly escorted out, but not before he could be heard yelling off-camera, “Congress kills!”

What’s more, Cohen and co’s art installation is the second piece of anti-Trump art to appear near the White House in a matter of days. On Monday, a statue depicting the White House’s historic Lincoln bathroom—which Donald Trump remodeled in Mar-a-Lago fashion—debuted in nearby, paying homage to the president’s affinity for marble, gold accents, and interior design.

The statue, titled “A Throne Fit For A King,” features a plaque that reads: “In a time of unprecedented division, escalating conflict, and economic turmoil, President Trump focused on what truly mattered: remodeling the Lincoln Bathroom in the White House.”

It continues, “This, his crowning achievement, is a bold reminder that the President isn’t just a businessman, he’s taking care of business. It stands as a tribute to an unwavering visionary who looked down, saw a problem, and painted it gold.”

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Laura EspositoBreaking News Reporter

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