President Donald Trump has bragged about his “real deal” 22-foot “golden” statue that is, in fact, made primarily of bronze.
“The Real Deal - GOLD - At Doral in Miami. Put there by great American Patriots!!!” the 79-year-old president posted in a bizarre brag on Truth Social Thursday morning.
In the post, which includes a picture of the giant effigy, the president fails to mention the fact that the figure is merely wrapped in gold leaf.
The shiny livery was added to the bronze statue by the sculptor, who told the Daily Beast that it was the easiest mark-up of his life. “They loved the idea, of course. It’s like pitching ice water to a man dying of thirst. It was not a hard sell,” Alan Cottrill said.
Cottrill, 73, managed to get $60,000 for this extra. He said that when he pitched the idea to wrap the figure, there were “two White House representatives on the call, two Patriot people on the call, Trump’s spiritual adviser, and two representatives from Doral Golf Club.”
In February, the New York Times reported that Pastor Mark Burns was the vital conduit to giving the statue its shine. He reportedly relayed a message from Trump to the maker, asking to see it washed in his favorite color. When Cottrill sent an image of it, Burns said, “Wow… sending to the president,” according to the Times.
The newspaper added that it had seen a text message from December in which Trump replied to Burns, saying, “It LOOKS FANTASTIC.”
Additionally, Cottrill was able to bump the price up by $90,000 after a squabble over image rights. “The crypto boys used the image of my statue to launch their token, and that’s a copyright infringement,” Cottrill told the Beast, explaining the second mark-up.
The total cost to the buyer, $PATRIOT, a meme coin with Trumpy overtones, was $450,000. Eric Trump, the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, publicly distanced the family from the coin in February.
The artist, from Zanesville, Ohio, said the statue, nicknamed ‘Don Colossus,’ was ready to go when Trump was inaugurated in January last year, but it has only now been erected at the Trump National Doral golf course.
USA Today reported earlier this year that the statue was supposed to tour the country before settling at the Doral site. However, this did not materialize, perhaps due to the legal wrangle over image rights that delayed the project.
“The crypto bros have been flaky as hell from the start,” Cottrill said, referencing the delay.
