An artist collective in Washington is protesting against US President Donald Trump with a golden toilet on an artificial marble base. “A throne for a king” reads a plaque on the installation, which has been on display since Monday near the monument to former President Abraham Lincoln in the US capital. Numerous passers-by had their photos taken while sitting on the toilet.
“In a time of unprecedented division, escalating conflict and economic turmoil, President Trump has focused on what really matters: redesigning the Lincoln Bathroom in the White House,” the plaque continues. “This, his crowning achievement, is a bold reminder that the president is not just a businessman but cares about business.”
© dpa/ROD LAMKEY
Trump announced the renovation of the Lincoln bathroom in the White House in October. Golden fittings and real marble should be used. Critics accuse Trump of behaving like an authoritarian ruler. Millions of people in the USA demonstrated against the US President on Saturday under the motto “No Kings”.
The sculpture is by an artist group called Secret Handshake, which does not want to publish the names of its members. The group’s logo can be read on a toilet paper roll. A member of the group told the Washington Post that everything feels bleak and hopeless under Trump. The installation expresses a “lightheartedness that could be a kind of respite from the darkness.”
The group had already erected another statue in Washington in the fall that shows Trump and sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein holding hands in a dance pose. The installation was called “Best friends”.