A towering gold statue of Donald Trump was unveiled Wednesday at his golf course in Doral, Florida, during an emotionally charged ceremony led by Evangelical pastor Mark Burns. The 22-foot figure, set on a 7-foot base, shows Trump thrusting a fist into the air in a pose that echoes the gesture he made after the attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The statue was draped in white and blue fabric that looked like a Greek toga and surrounded by a few dozen guests seated in chairs as Burns defended the tribute as something other than idolatry. “This statue is a celebration of life,” he said, adding that it was “a symbol of resilience, freedom, patriotism, strength, and the will power to keep fighting for the future of America.”
Trump called into the dedication and thanked Burns and the people gathered around the sculpture. “I want to thank Mark Burns, a pastor, he’s a good pastor, he's a good man,” Trump said. “I’ve known him a long time, he’s been with me from the beginning, right from the beginning, maybe about two days later. I want to thank everybody there. I know it was done from love.”
The display capped a project commissioned and bankrolled by a collective of crypto investors seeking to lift the profile of their memecoin, $PATRIOT. Sculptor Alan Cottrill said in February that he agreed to create the bronze figure for $300,000, but later said the investors were slow in paying. He proposed coating the statue in gold leaf in November and said the idea went down like an offering of water “to a person dying of thirst,” adding that “immediately everybody jumped on board.”
Cottrill also said he was holding the statue hostage in a warehouse until he was paid the total agreed upon sum. The investors responded that the statue was paid in full a year ago and said, “He’s an amazing artist and despite his comments we greatly appreciate the work he completed on this historic statue.”
The clash over the money did not stop the unveiling, and the ceremony gave Burns and Trump a public stage for a piece that merges politics, faith and crypto promotion. Burns, a member of Pastors for Trump, insisted the statue was not a golden calf, but the project’s scale and symbolism made its purpose plain enough: it was designed to celebrate Trump, and to do it in gold.
