Trump's naked 23-karat gold statue unveiled near European Parliament

A 23-karat gold-coated, completely naked statue of US President Donald Trump, created by the Danish artist Jens Galschiøt, was unveiled near the European Parliament building in Strasbourg. The eight-foot-long statue, called The Orange Plague, shows a naked Donald Trump holding a golf club in one hand and the scales of justice in the other while being carried by a far smaller, visibly exhausted man, with a world-shaped ball right beneath him.

Inscribed at the base: “The King of Injustice”. It reads: “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.”

Galschiøt said that the sculpture was a "satirical outcry" against the volatility of American foreign and green policy. “Trump represents one of the greatest threats to the rule-based world order, democratic values, and our common effort to solve the climate crisis,” he said in a statement. “We must address this issue and stand together against such destructive influence.”

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Danish MEP Per Clausen commended the unveiling of the new statue, saying, “If someone is so thin-skinned that they cannot tolerate this sculpture being exhibited in the European Parliament, then they have no place on the world stage.”

The installation is supposed to remain in Strasbourg through to Thursday. It will again appear at the UN COP31 Climate Conference in Turkey, in November, when the artist will distribute 3D-printed miniature replicas to delegates.

Who is Jens Galschiøt?

Jens is a prominent sculptor well known for his political commentary through art. He is best known for his work ‘Pillar of Shame ’-a series of sculptures depicting eight-metre-high, twisted human bodies. It was unveiled just ahead of the handover of Hong Kong to China from British Rule, as a protest against China's crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. This recent sculpture also bears a resemblance to, or draws inspiration from, the artist’s earlier work, Survival of the Fattest, which shows a starved boy carrying an overweight woman as a visual metaphor for global inequality.