{"id":623825,"date":"2026-10-08T00:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T00:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/623825\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T00:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T00:16:11","slug":"naked-golden-trump-statue-goes-on-display-at-european-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/623825\/","title":{"rendered":"Naked, golden Trump statue goes on display at European Parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A naked, golden statue of US President Donald Trump, perched on the shoulders of a frail man, has gone on display inside the European Parliament building in Strasbourg, France.<\/p>\n<p>The 2.4m work, titled The Orange Plague, was unveiled on Tuesday. Danish sculptor Jens Galschi\u00f8t covered it entirely in 23-carat gold leaf.<\/p>\n<p>The sculpture shows Trump holding a golf club and a globe-shaped ball in one hand and a set of scales in the other. A thin man struggles beneath his weight.<\/p>\n<p>An inscription on the base, signed by &#8220;The King of Injustice&#8221;, reads: &#8220;I am sitting on the back of a man. He is sinking under my burden. I will do anything to help him. Except stepping down from his back.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Galschi\u00f8t said the work targeted Trump&#8217;s environmental record.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The sculpture is a satirical out-cry against Trump and the US assault on the green transition and the rule-based world order,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/danish-sculptor-jens-galschiot-says-the-work-is-a-satirical-PD7MMYGY5REL3I66HA5GTLRTLI.jpg\" alt=\"Danish sculptor Jens Galschi&#xF8;t says the work is a satirical protest against Trump's environmental record.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"ImageMetadata__MetadataParagraph-sc-hi5x8q-0 cWTYyG image-metadata\">Danish sculptor Jens Galschi\u00f8t says the work is a satirical protest against Trump&#8217;s environmental record. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n<p>Danish MEP Per Clausen is hosting the statue as part of a three-day exhibition at the parliament&#8217;s seat in northeastern France, near the German border.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, Galschi\u00f8t said the piece was not aimed at the parliament itself.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is about the attempts by the great powers to dominate, control and reshape the world according to their own interests. Trump is an extreme and very visible symbol of this development,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have made him naked and covered him in gold because sometimes satire can say things that political language cannot.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/an-inscription-on-the-base-of-the-statue-is-signed-by-the-ki-OLFJUIKMTVE3DKYMUDZN6HQCBI.jpg\" alt=\"An inscription on the base of the statue is signed by &quot;The King of Injustice&quot;.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"ImageMetadata__MetadataParagraph-sc-hi5x8q-0 cWTYyG image-metadata\">An inscription on the base of the statue is signed by &#8220;The King of Injustice&#8221;. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n<p>In a newsletter, the sculptor said he drew on Hans Christian Andersen&#8217;s fairy tale The Emperor&#8217;s New Clothes. He said the statue asked: &#8220;How long will we allow ourselves to carry the powerful on our backs?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>On his website, Galschi\u00f8t accused Trump of &#8220;undermining the climate efforts, rolling back hard-won progress, and even destroying the scientific data that documents it&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>He said he was curious to see how the work would be received.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are all very excited to see how the exhibition is received by the decision makers of Europe.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Galschi\u00f8t is handing out free miniature versions of the sculpture to visitors at exhibitions where The Orange Plague appears.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-greyDarkFaded\">The morning&#8217;s headlines in 90 seconds, including murder charges after the death of doctor to the royal family, and how an Indian cop clung onto a speeding car for 40km. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A naked, golden statue of US President Donald Trump, perched on the shoulders of a frail man, has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2567,65,42,43,40,38,41,39,1745,66],"class_list":["post-623825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-arts-and-culture","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-uk-europe","tag-us-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}