‘King of Injustice’: Golden naked Trump statue installed at European Parliament

At a busy thoroughfare inside the European Parliament, passing politicians are now confronted with a grotesque and gilded vision of American power: an 8.5-foot-tall statue of President Donald Trump, naked but for a thin layer of 23-karat gold leaf.

“Trump likes gold,” said Danish artist Jens Galschiøt, the statue’s creator, over the phone after it was unveiled Tuesday. “In a way, I think he would like this sculpture.”

Titled “The Orange Plague,” the artwork has been installed in Strasbourg, France, the official seat of the European Parliament. The copper sculpture, also dubbed the “King of Injustice,” imagines the US president on the shoulders of frail smaller figure. His thighs and sagging belly wrap tightly around the man’s head; his hands clutch at a long golf club and the scales of justice.

“I am sitting on the back of a man,” reads the text on the statue’s plinth. “He is sinking under my burden. I will do anything to help him. Except step down from his back.”

Courtesy Jens Galschiøt

For Galschiøt, the work symbolizes what he sees as the US president’s threats to the environment and the rules-based world order. “Trump is destroying all the things I believe in,” he said.

This is not necessary a rebuke from the European Union, but rather from Danish politician Per Clausen, who sponsored the exhibit. Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are entitled to host displays on parliament grounds, though all exhibitions must be approved by officials. Parliamentary rules prohibit events or exhibitions deemed “offensive or of an inflammatory nature or contradictory to the values on which the Union is founded,” or those that “undermine the dignity of Parliament.”

Permission is not tantamount to explicit endorsement of their contents. Nonetheless Galschiøt, who had feared the application would be rejected, considers the green-light to be a form of tacit approval from Europe’s parliamentarians. “I think a lot of American people say, ‘OK, this is our president, but he’s also ridiculous in a way.’ And I think most Europeans see him like that, too,” he said.

Galschiøt is known for provocative political artworks including the “Pillar of Shame,” a memorial to victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre that was controversially removed from a Hong Kong university in 2021. He said his decision to depict Trump naked alludes to Hans Christian Andersen’s story “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” in which a vain emperor parades the city in the nude. “Dictators don’t like you laughing at them,” he explained.

The most recent temporary display is expected to remain on show until Thursday. It is accompanied by over 1,000 3D-printed miniatures of the sculpture, which are being made available to passersby as “protest tokens.”

Clausen, the exhibition’s sponsor, is a member of Denmark’s socialist Red-Green Alliance party. Elected as an MEP in 2024, he is a member of The Left, a minority left-wing group representing around 6% of seats in the European Parliament.

“I think we need to have a discussion about power in the world and how this power is used,” he said on the phone from Strasbourg. “The way Trump acts is a very, very big problem for people in Europe. I want to raise the discussion in Europe about how we can make our self-defense against Trump, and how can we make politics that is not dependent on him.”

Aside from “some people from the extreme right wing,” Clausen said the response to the statue has been positive. “It’s very important that we in parliament have this opportunity to show things that not everybody agrees with.”

Galschiøt has exhibited “The Orange Plague” in public several times before, including at the Munich Security Conference and last November’s COP30 UN climate conference in Brazil. He also plans to display it at COP31 in Antalya, Turkey next month.

Trump is yet to comment on the artwork.

A spokesperson for the European Parliament’s press service said via email that the exhibit was approved by the parliament’s quaestors, a cross-party group of MEP’s responsible for administrative matters. “Each MEP is entitled to sponsor two cultural events or exhibitions per parliamentary term in dedicated areas,” the statement added, adding that quaestors “assess the compliance with the rules in place.”

In 2024, Galschiøt exhibited a model of his “Pillar of Shame” in front of the European Parliament building in Brussels as part of an exhibition of “forbidden art.” Then sponsored by another Danish MEP, Kira Marie Peter-Hansenm, the display took aim at Hong Kong and mainland China, where references to the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre are heavily censored.

The artist drew parallels between his most famous work and his latest swipe at Trump. “This is about the powerful and the powerless, and in a way, the ‘Pillar of Shame’ is also that.”

在欧洲议会繁忙的通道上，路过的政客们现在面对的是一个怪诞而镀金的美国权力景象：一座 8.5 英尺高的唐纳德·特朗普总统雕像，除了薄薄的一层 23K 金箔外，一丝不挂。

“特朗普喜欢黄金，”雕像的创作者、丹麦艺术家延斯·加尔斯基奥特在周二揭幕后通过电话表示，“从某种意义上说，我认为他会喜欢这座雕塑。”

这件名为“橙色瘟疫”的艺术作品已安装在法国斯特拉斯堡，即欧洲议会所在地。这座铜雕作品也被称为“不公正之王”，描绘了美国总统骑在一个瘦弱矮小的身影肩上。他的大腿和下垂的腹部紧紧地缠绕着矮小男子的头部；他的双手紧握着一根长长的高尔夫球杆和正义的天平。

“我坐在一个男人的背上，”雕像底座上的文字写道。“他正因我的重负而下沉。我愿意做任何事来帮助他。除了从他背上下来。”

图片由 Jens Galschiøt 提供

在加尔斯基奥特看来，这件作品象征着他眼中美国总统对环境和基于规则的世界秩序构成的威胁。“特朗普正在摧毁我所信仰的一切，”他说。

这并非欧盟的谴责，而是丹麦政治家佩尔·克劳森的批评，他是此次展览的赞助人。欧洲议会议员有权在议会场地举办展览，但所有展览都必须获得官员批准。议会规则禁止举办任何被认为“冒犯性、煽动性或与欧盟立国价值观相悖”的活动或展览，以及任何“有损议会尊严”的活动或展览。

获得许可并不等同于对其内容的明确认可。尽管如此，加尔斯基厄特原本担心申请会被驳回，但他认为此次获准是欧洲议员们的一种默许。“我想很多美国人会说，‘好吧，这是我们的总统，但他某种程度上也很荒谬。’我想大多数欧洲人也这么认为，”他说道。

加尔斯基厄特以其极具争议的政治艺术作品而闻名，其中包括“耻辱之柱”，这件纪念天安门事件遇难者的纪念碑于2021年从香港一所大学被移除，引发争议。他表示，他决定将特朗普描绘成裸体，是暗指汉斯·克里斯蒂安·安徒生的童话故事《皇帝的新装》，故事中一位虚荣的皇帝裸体游街示众。“独裁者不喜欢别人嘲笑他们，”他解释道。

最新的临时展览预计将持续展出至周四。同时展出的还有1000多件该雕塑的3D打印微缩模型，这些模型将作为“抗议纪念品”提供给路人。

展览赞助人克劳森是丹麦社会主义红绿联盟党的成员。他于2024年当选为欧洲议会议员，是左翼党成员，该党是欧洲议会中一个少数左翼团体，约占6%的席位。

“我认为我们需要讨论一下世界上的权力以及这种权力是如何被使用的，”他在斯特拉斯堡通过电话说道。“特朗普的行为对欧洲人民来说是一个非常非常大的问题。我想在欧洲发起一场讨论，探讨我们如何才能自卫，抵御特朗普，以及如何建立一种不依赖于他的政治。”

克劳森表示，除了“一些极右翼人士”之外，人们对这座雕像的反应是积极的。“我们议会能够有机会展示一些并非人人认同的观点，这一点非常重要。”

加尔斯基奥特此前曾多次公开展示他的作品《橙色瘟疫》，包括在慕尼黑安全会议和去年11月在巴西举行的联合国气候变化大会（COP30）上。他还计划下个月在土耳其安塔利亚举行的联合国气候变化大会（COP31）上再次展出这件作品。

特朗普尚未对这件艺术品发表评论。

欧洲议会新闻处发言人通过电子邮件表示，该展览已获得议会财务官的批准。财务官是由跨党派议员组成的小组，负责行政事务。声明补充说：“每位议员每个任期内有权在指定领域赞助两项文化活动或展览。”声明还指出，财务官“负责评估活动是否符合相关规定”。

2024年，加尔斯基厄特在布鲁塞尔的欧洲议会大楼前展出了他的作品“耻辱之柱”的模型，作为“禁忌艺术”展览的一部分。该展览由另一位丹麦欧洲议会议员基拉·玛丽·彼得-汉森赞助，矛头直指香港和中国大陆，在这些地区，提及1989年天安门事件的内容都受到严格审查。

这位艺术家将他最著名的作品与他最近对特朗普的抨击进行了比较。“这关乎强者和弱者，从某种意义上说，《耻辱之柱》也是如此。”