While the Old Testament’s Moses might disagree, there were no graven images at the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference, according to the man who built a golden statue of former President Donald Trump.
The seemingly gilded likeness of Trump attracted criticism as it was compared to the golden calf worshiped in the Bible’s book of Exodus, but the statue’s creator rejected the comparison.
“It’s not an idol,” said artist and former youth pastor Tommy Zegan, reported MediaITE. “I know the biblical definition of an idol. This is not an idol. This is a sculpture.”
The 200-pound fiberglass statue of the former president, titled Trump and his Magic Wand, was made in Rosarito, Mexico, and later painted in Tampa, Florida, Politico reported. The artist said the statue was then U-Hauled to Orlando, where it was on display for CPAC 2021. Zegan said that he’d sell it for $100,000.
The gilded Trump is dressed in red flip-flops, American flag shorts and a black suit coat over a white dress shirt and red tie. Trump, whose head, hands and legs are painted gold, holds the U.S. Constitution in his right hand and a star-capped wand in his left. The “magic wand” refers a comment made by former President Barack Obama in 2016, when he figuratively asked “what magic wand do you have” of Trump’s plan to bring lost manufacturing jobs back to America.
“The coat and tie is the fact that he’s a professional, he’s a businessman,” Zegan told CNN. “The red tie symbolizes he’s a Republican. The red white and blue is that he’s a patriot. The fact that he’s wearing thongs and shorts is that he’s at the age where he should be retired. He should be at the beach right now.”
Zegan has also created a stainless steel version of the statue, which he hopes will be “displayed in the Trump Presidential Library one day,” according to a YouTube video from last year. Addressing Trump directly in the video, the sculptor said he made the presidential likeness for “all the great stuff that you’ve done in the last four years for our country.”
As the golden statue was wheeled through a hallway at CPAC last week, supporters of the former president of can be heard saying “awesome” and “that’s so cool,” The Hill reported.
“Four more years” another begins to chant.
Numerous CPAC attendees took selfies with the statue, which were then posted to social media, but a photo alleging that faith leaders prayed over the golden statute was fake, The Associated Press reported
“Though a 6-foot-tall golden statue of Trump’s likeness is real, this particular image was fabricated. The individuals in the original photo were praying around Trump himself, not a statue, at an ‘Evangelicals for Trump’ event last year,” wrote Ali Swenson, a news verification reporter for the AP.
But online, not everyone admired the golden statue.
“Ah, the Golden Calf. Cue Moses,” wrote Larry Sabato on Twitter, according to The Hill. Sabato is the founder and director of the the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
The golden calf refers to the Old Testament story where the children of Israel, who had just been freed from slavery by the prophet Moses, built and worshipped a golden calf while Moses communed with God on Mount Sinai.
“Idol worship isn’t conservative,” Congressman Adam Kinzinger, a Republican and U.S. Air Force veteran from Illinois, said on Twitter.
News accounts of the statue turning heads at CPAC had no response from Trump.