Trump Sculptor Slams MAGA Crypto Bros After Bitter Fallout
The sculptor behind a 22-foot golden statue of Donald Trump unveiled at the president’s golf course this week says it was “chaos” behind the scenes.
“Once somebody has shown that they can’t be trusted to do what they say, you don’t work with them anymore,” sculptor Alan Cottrill told Miami New Times when asked in an interview whether he would work on the upcoming skyscraper set to become the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library in Miami.
The artist’s initial response to the prospect of another collaboration with the MAGA crypto bros who commissioned the so-called “Don Collosus” statue was short: “f--k no.”
Cottrill’s giant gold-leafed effigy was erected at the Trump National Doral golf course in Miami on Thursday and unveiled during an emotional ceremony led by Pastor Mark Burns, who is seen as the president’s informal spiritual adviser and was allegedly involved in the project.
“This was a clusterf--k,” Cottrill told the New Times, describing the “chaos” that building the statue caused while working with crypto investors who commissioned the Trump likeness as part of a promotional push for their memecoin, $PATRIOT.
In an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast, the artist revealed that the “crypto boys” used images of the sculpture to launch their token, which he said constituted copyright infringement.
He alleged that they later stopped paying for the project, forcing him to store the statue—completed last year around Trump’s January inauguration—in an undisclosed location until payment was made.
“I usually deal with people that have everything organized,” Cotrill, who mentioned he has “400 life-size or larger statues around the country,” told the New Times.
Still, Cottrill increased the total cost of his creation from $300,000 to $450,000 after pitching the idea of adding a gold-leaf finish to the bronze statue for an additional $60,000, and eventually charging $90,000 for the alleged copyright infringement.
“It’s like pitching ice water to a man dying of thirst,” the sculptor said about selling the gold-leaf addition, which pleased the gold-obsessed president, whose son Eric has attempted to distance the family from the project.
In a post on Truth Social, the 79-year-old president praised the newly erected statue, which depicts him raising his right fist in a gesture reminiscent of the moment he re-emerged after surviving an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania campaign rally.
“The Real Deal - GOLD - At Doral in Miami. Put there by great American Patriots!!!” Trump posted on Thursday, though the sculptor told the New Times not to forget that “it’s just a normal bronze statue with a coating of gold leaf over the entire thing,” rather than being fully made of gold.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.