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A new statue has been introduced to the European Parliament building in Strasbourg, and it’s all kinds of satirical and naked.
Titled “The Orange Plague,” the 2.6-meter statue by Danish artist Jens Galschiøt, is a depiction of a nude Donald Trump holding a comically sized golf club in one hand, a set of scales in the other, all while sitting on the back of a smaller, frailer man.
The artist said it is coated with 23-karat gold and that his work is also known by the name “King of Injustice.”
Beneath the statue is a plaque which 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.
– The King of Injustice.”
According to Galschiøt, the work was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s The Emperor’s New Clothes, and is a “satirical outcry” against Trump’s volatile climate and foreign policies.
“Nations as well as NGOs are afraid to openly raise the subject [of] how to deal with Trump and his policies, fearing tariffs, fund-cuts, deportations or the like,” Galschiøt wrote on his website. “As an independent art workshop we are not restricted by such bonds. This sculpture has been made to address ‘the elephant in the room’ and start a necessary debate [about] how the US is destroying the world’s only chance to counter the climate catastrophe.”
All visitors receive a 3D-printed miniature of the sculpture to take home.
Galschiøt has said he printed around 20,000 sculptures that he distributed not only to visitors but also to staff throughout the European Parliament.
Left-wing Danish European Parliament member Per Clausen, who invited the artist, said he is not worried about a potential reaction by Trump.
“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,” Clausen said.
As of yet, no reaction from the subject of “The Orange Plague”, who is usually reactive online and not known for his thick skin in these matters.
The statue was previously displayed at the “hands off Greenland” demonstrations in Copenhagen earlier this year and the COP30 UN Climate Summit in Belém, Brazil last year.
After the present installation in Strasbourg, Galschiøt plans to exhibit “The Orange Plague” again at the COP31 UN Climate Conference next month Antalya, Türkiye.