YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — A 12-foot-tall statue of Elon Musk with the phrases, “Make America Wait Again” and “Now With Longer Lines Thanks To DOGE Cuts!” made its stop at Yellowstone National Park on Saturday.
The statue has already made stops at Arches National Park, Mount Rainier National Park and Yosemite National Park.
“The idea is to kind of pair beautiful American iconic imagery such as national parks, with a fun satirical twist on Elon Musk’s gutting of the government through DOGE,” an artist who spoke on the condition of anonymity told NBC Montana.
The statue was at Yellowstone National Park for several hours on Saturday traveling to the park’s main sites.
The artist told NBC Montana that the statue took around six weeks to complete and was first drafted in a computer model, prior to being 3D-printed and reinforced.
“We’re not affiliated with any organization. We’re not affiliated with a political party, a corporation, even like a nonprofit. We’re just a few people who want to find creative and unique ways to make comedic political statements,” the artist said. “It’s not really about us it’s more fun when it’s mysterious when this thing is popping up in places and then disappearing.”
The artist added that they personally have no affiliation with national parks, and doesn’t even know anyone who works for the National Park Service.
As far as reactions, “From people flipping it off and being really mad to people being delighted and taking selfies in front of it, taking group photos in front of it, to people being very confused because they’re from Sweden and have no idea what’s going on,” the artist said.
When asked if the artist was planning on going to any other national parks, they told NBC Montana “Yes, but I can’t tell you which ones.”