(Image credits: AFP)
A massive gold-leafed statue of US President Donald Trump lies on its back inside a sculpture studio in Ohio, its future uncertain more than a year after it was completed.The 15-foot bronze sculpture, dubbed “Don Colossus,” depicts Trump raising his fist moments after surviving an assassination attempt in July 2024. Once installed on a 6,000-pound base, it is designed to stand two storeys tall.The statue was commissioned for $360,000 by cryptocurrency entrepreneurs backing Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. But it has yet to be formally erected, partly because sculptor Alan Cottrill says he has not been fully paid.“I would be a fool to install it without the payment being made, and I am not a fool,” said Cottrill, 73, who says he is still owed around $92,000, as quoted by AP.The stalled project has become a symbol of the instability surrounding cryptocurrency ventures, and of the shifting alliances within Trump’s political and financial orbit.Cottrill alleges that after he was hired, the project’s backers went behind his back and began using images of the sculpture to promote their $PATRIOT cryptocurrency. The token is a meme coin — a digital asset with no intrinsic value that depends on speculation and online communities to build its price. Trump’s close ties to the crypto sector have drawn accusations of major conflicts of interest. Bloomberg News estimates the Trump family fortune grew by $1.4 billion last year from digital assets alone.The $PATRIOT coin launched in November 2024 and drew strong interest as Trump swept the US presidential election that month. But its momentum was short-lived.Days before his January inauguration, and just ahead of the planned unveiling of the statue, Trump launched his own cryptocurrency, $TRUMP. As $TRUMP surged, $PATRIOT’s value collapsed. Although it continues to trade, the coin is now worth more than 95 per cent less than its peak.Those behind $PATRIOT include Republican strategist Dustin Stockton, who was investigated by federal agents over his work on “We Build The Wall,” a fundraising effort that led Trump adviser Steve Bannon to plead guilty to defrauding donors. Stockton did not immediately respond to AFP requests for comment.At his studio in Zanesville, Ohio, about 300 miles west of Washington, Cottrill speaks proudly of his work and his long career. He has sculpted at least 17 US presidents, including a statue of Thomas Edison that stands at the US Capitol.“When they said 15-feet tall, they were starting to get to the scale of my ego,” he laughed.Cottrill says it took a month to create the life-sized figure, followed by three more months to enlarge it, cast it in bronze, and have his team polish and buff the surface by hand.“It’s just overpowering. It’s mammoth,” he said.The project was not without creative disputes. Cottrill said he sculpted the 79-year-old Republican leader’s “turkey neck,” but the crypto backers objected and asked for a more flattering, less realistic look.Trump’s hair proved to be another challenge.“The hardest thing was sculpting his hair. Holy shmoly! Oi yoi yoi!” he exclaimed. “You can’t sculpt and cast something that is…” he paused, trying to find the right word, “wispy.”Asked to reflect on his experience working with the cryptocurrency world, Cottrill was blunt. “The short answer is, I won’t do it again.”More than a year after it was finished, the statue now appears to have a home at the Trump National Doral golf resort in Miami. Cottrill installed the base there last month, but no unveiling date has been announced. Go to Source
