A statue of Donald Trump has been unveiled in Rapid City, South Dakota, as part of the “City of Presidents.”
“The City of Presidents will soon welcome its newest addition: a statue honoring Donald J. Trump. Like all presidents on the trail, the statue followed the tradition of post-term installations, commissioned in 2021 after his term ended, and completed before the 2024 election,” the attraction’s website says. A statue of former President Joe Biden has been commissioned but has not yet been unveiled.
The dedication and unveiling took place over the weekend, and according to Newsweek, it was met with protesters. According to the Mirror, the protesters gathered outside the theater to “share their anger” about the new statue. According to News Center 1, the protesters were from Indivisible Rapid City.
“This is what veterans are dealing with, this is what people on Medicare and Medicaid are dealing with. They’re afraid. And putting a statue in downtown Rapid City, that just exacerbates the problem,” said Roseanna Renaud with Indivisible Rapid City.
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Rapid City Mayor Jason Salamun acknowledged the protests, adding, “it’s really the story of America. Whenever I hear him speak, regardless of what he’s talking about, it’s always big.”
The City of Presidents unveiled their newest statue — President Trump. Thanks for inviting me to be a part of it! pic.twitter.com/jTyaU3pxuh
— Rep. Dusty Johnson (@RepDustyJohnson) May 4, 2025
“I knew it would be a controversial piece,” the sculptor, Jim Maher, told a local news station, as reported by Newsweek. “I had friends that told me it would ruin my career. I had other friends tell me that it’d be the greatest thing I’d ever done. I think the truth is probably somewhere in the middle of that.”
That Trump statue is part of a nonpartisan exhibit. However, other statues of Trump have been created by admirers and enemies of the president.
Apparently Trump “Buddha” statues are making quite the wave in China pic.twitter.com/otUTgw0xRz
— Abhinav Kukreja (@kukreja_abhinav) July 11, 2024
“Don Colossus,” a 15-foot statue of Trump based on a painting of his 2024 assassination attempt, is touring the country this year and will eventually land at the Trump presidential library. A statue of Trump as the Buddha, titled “Trump, the Buddha of Knowing of the Western Paradise,” was created in China in 2021.
Others have been built to mock or insult Trump, such as “In Honor of a Lifetime of Sexual Assault,” a sculpture that appeared in Portland, Philadelphia, and Washington in 2024. A wooden statue of Trump appeared in his wife’s homeland of Slovenia, but it later burned to the ground.
An organization called the Trump Statue Initiative has encouraged the building of Trump statues and sculptures meant to protest against Trump and Trumpism.
Of course, some Trump fans would like to see another commemoration of Trump elsewhere in South Dakota: In January, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) introduced a bill to “direct the Secretary of the Interior to arrange for the carving of the figure of President Donald J. Trump on Mount Rushmore National Memorial.”
Photo courtesy of X screenshot.
