Oh Trump! The presidential hopeful continues to be a never-ending repository of hilarity, amazement, disgust, and abject terror. His bravado, swagger, and blatant disregard for those pesky things called facts have attracted millions of voters, but have repelled many others. We’ve seen more than enough of that doughy orange face and wispy hair to last most of us a lifetime, but a group called Indecline– what most outlets are reporting as an “anarchist collective” but don’t seem to embody those ideals at all– decided to take it one step further yesterday when the installed a naked Donald Trump statue at Union Square.
It’s a somewhat bizarre connection, but the three filmmakers behind the production crew Indecline are the creators of those super messed up Bum Fights videos of the early aughts that the National Coalition for the Homeless called both “sickening” and “degrading” – you know, the totally exploitative and outright low guerrilla-style movies where teens and homeless people violently attacked one another (not to mention the casual gay jokes on their website). The group which has called itself an “underground movement” of “activists” and artists, relishes in anarchist imagery and even sell anarcho-gear (ugh)– see: their bandanas, branded balaklava, and black gloves (presumably for doing naughty, rebellious things), among others. Many of these items bear that Indecline logo, a business man with a suitcase and devil horns. Yawn.
We gotta admit, the naked Trump statue, however, was kind of great/terrifying, even though we couldn’t get over the feeling that it was a total rip off of Illma More’s naked portrait of the Donald, complete with micro-peen.
If you were lucky (or unlucky, depending on your perspective) enough to wander through Union Square yesterday morning, you may have gotten an eyeful of something you weren’t prepared for: a buck-naked Trump, standing in all his rather modest glory in the middle of Union Square for two hours.
The statue– replicas of which were also simultaneously unveiled in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cleveland and Seattle– features a rather un-presidential looking Trump who seems to confirm all those “small hands” rumors we’ve been hearing. The group dubbed the sculpture (see the video above) The Emperor Has No Balls– we’re pretty sure you can guess what anatomical features the statue was missing.
Predictably, the Internet had many opinions. *Warning: Many images of naked Trump statues below*
Maybe they should just line up a bunch of these along the border. I’d turn back. #NakedTrump pic.twitter.com/eJfPHvZFt0
— Gary Foss (@garyvfoss) August 19, 2016
Sorry, Trump supporters, but your Emperor is buck naked. Don’t expect rest of us to praise his non-existent robes. @cspanwj
— Wild and Wonderful (@EPWVLaw) August 10, 2016
The naked trump statues creep me out yet give me life. pic.twitter.com/rXHse8x7Is
— Gibby The Potato (@thegibwadsquad) August 19, 2016
The Trump campaign has had more managers leave (2) than Trump’s penis has inches.#NakedTrump
— I.C. Dumpeaple (@Proud2Progress) August 19, 2016
Many applauded the NYC Parks Department’s killer statement after removing the statue:
NYC parks department on naked Trump statue: “NYC Parks stands firmly against any unpermitted erection in city parks, no matter how small.”
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) August 18, 2016
And envied their witticism:
Nothing I ever tweet will get as many retweets and responses as a phallic joke from the NYC parks department on a naked Trump statue.
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) August 18, 2016
Other NYC officials apparently weighed in on #NakedTrump:
De Blasio was just asked about a naked statue of Trump in Union Sq. “When he’s wearing clothes I don’t like him… I can only imagine.”
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) August 18, 2016
And others wondered whether it would have still been as funny if the object of ridicule had been someone else (remember the bikini-clad Clinton mural in Australia that was taken down?):
Statues of Trump naked is no big deal on social media but if it was Hillary naked everybody and their mother would be freaking out
— Tony Gheen (@TheGheenMachine) August 19, 2016
Nude Trump statues https://t.co/8Mes7jtFpr Brought this on himself but what would be the response if these were naked Hillary statues?
— George Henry (@georgehenry47) August 19, 2016
Others were quick to decry the implicit body shaming of the project:
I dislike Trump, but a naked statue of any candidate is gross. It has nothing to do with his candidacy or views, it’s just body shaming.
— Britt Poteet (@HalfOfBrittney5) August 19, 2016
For those who decry fat/body shaming, but publicly celebrate the naked, small-penised statue of Trump as creative “protest,” we pray.
— Allen M O’Brien (@allenob) August 19, 2016
While others thought they were maybe taking things a wee bit too seriously:
I just read someone worrying about the body-shaming potential of those naked Trump statues. pic.twitter.com/ZiQAoFlT1c
— RJ regrets that he (@rj_white) August 19, 2016
And others simply realized that what has once been seen can never be unseen again:
Honestly I really could have gone my whole life without seeing a statue of Donald Trump naked
— ctooms (@CarolineeToomey) August 19, 2016
And that’s the end of naked Trump in Union Square (pic: @kozu_kozu_u) #NYC #NBC4NY pic.twitter.com/01eLxBDw0c
— Steven Bognar (@Bogs4NY) August 18, 2016