Donald Trump has heaped praise on a new gold statue built in his honour, saying the icon would eventually become a “landmark”.
The 22ft figure at the Trump National Doral Miami golf club in Florida was dedicated to the U.S. president by a group of religious leaders last week, drawing mixed reactions from golfers.
While some praised the statue, others were less convinced, with one player declaring: “I wouldn’t put one in my home.”
“It’s his course. It’s his property… It’s not my thing,” continued the woman, only identified by her first name, Andrea. If Trump wanted to put up a statue “with a piece of bacon on his head,” he could do that, too, she told The Washington Post.
Writing on Truth Social on Friday, Trump showered his “political supporters” with adoration, calling them “very good people”.
“Those playing the Blue Monster, at Doral, are absolutely in love with it. Congratulations to all involved. With time, it will become a Landmark!” he said.
Pastor Mark Burns, a longtime supporter who presided over the ceremony, said Trump was originally scheduled to attend the May 6 ceremony in person, but apparently changed his plans amid backlash from his base for posting, and later deleting, an AI-generated image of him resembling Jesus Christ.
Burns took to social media to insist the statue was not a form of idolatry.
“Let me be clear: this is not a golden calf,” he wrote. “This statue is a celebration of life. It is a symbol of resilience, freedom, patriotism, strength, and the willpower to keep fighting for the future of America.”
Pressed on the matter in a recent interview with The New Yorker, Pastor Burns said the statue was “no different from a Michael Jordan statue”.
“I’m very close to the President, but I don’t know anybody in my circle who worships or honors Donald Trump as a god or any kind of deity,” he said.
“President Trump had nothing to do with the statue, as you and the media keep trying to portray that he did.”
The statue — which rises 15ft atop a 7ft base — was commissioned and bankrolled by a collective of crypto investors seeking to boost visibility for their memecoin, $PATRIOT, according to The Daily Beast.
It depicts the president with his fist in the air, similar to a photograph taken during the July 2024 assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Trump last month faced criticism from Catholic and political allies for sharing an AI image that appeared to depict him as Jesus.
The image shared to his Truth Social platform depicted Trump tending to the sick, wearing white and red robes, with light emanating from his hands. He later said he was portraying a doctor, not Jesus.
“I thought it was me as a doctor,” he said of the post, which he deleted after an outcry. “Only the fake news could come up with that.”
