US Politics
Trump’s 15-foot gold statue of himself at his Florida golf course compared to North Korea’s Dear Leader
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A 15-foot gold statue depicting President Trump has been compared to monuments to North Korea’s former dictators.
Nicknamed “Don Colossus,” the statue stands at the Trump National Doral Miami and was erected just a week before the PGA Tour’s Cadillac Championship.
However, social media users have been quick to compare the structure to a pair of statues dedicated to former Supreme Leaders Kim Il-sung and the so-called “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-il.
“Trump’s Doral National golf course in Miami installs gold statue of Trump, which is remarkably similar to one of Dear Leader in North Korea,” Mike Sington, a former NBCUniversal senior executive, wrote on X.
Dr Sam Youssef, an internet personality and frequent Trump critic, wrote on X that the president had achieved his “dream of becoming like North Korean leaders” with the statue.
“What else would you expect,” professional golfer Rickie Fowler told Golfweek.
Trump had a fractious relationship with Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s current supreme leader, during his first term. He dubbed the dictator “Little Rocket Man,” and claimed that his nuclear button was “much bigger” than Kim’s.
The pair would go on to reconcile, as Trump claimed they “fell in love” after the autocrat sent him “beautiful letters.”
As recently as this April, Trump said that he “got along very well” with Kim and that the North Korean dictator used a derogatory term to mock former President Joe Biden’s mental fitness.
Some golfers and PGA Tour staff have been reluctant to pose with the Trump statue, which shows the president raising his fist, as he had during an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania in 2024, according to Golfweek.
Maverick McNealy told the website that he had not decided whether to take a selfie with the statue, which he described as “very tall and very gold.”
When a tournament photographer asked members of the Tour staff if they wanted a photograph with the statue, he was met with a resounding “no.”
“Ok, I didn’t know you were all so woke,” he responded, according to Golfweek.
The 3.1-ton statue, made of bronze, was designed by Ohio-based artist Alan Cottrill.
However, Cottrill told The Columbus Dispatch that he had previously been embroiled in a payment dispute with $PATRIOT, the cryptocurrency group that commissioned the statue back in August 2024.
Cottrill had been paid $300,000 for the bronze and $60,000 for the gold leafing covering the statue.
The artist said that the dispute began after the $PATRIOT started using the statue’s likeness to sell crypto tokens. That prompted him to hold the statue in a secret location in Muskingum County until he was given full payment.
The White House has maintained that it is not involved in the crypto project or the related statue.