Donald Trump seems to have his own version of the Midas touch: everything he lays eyes on, he wants covered in gold.
His newest golden tribute sits thousands of miles from the White House and exposes something he tries to keep hidden.
There’s just one problem. The artist didn’t build it to honor Trump, and the attached message reads like a confession he would never sign.
The towering piece went viral this week inside the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, where lawmakers from across the European Union debate and pass laws.
It stands more than 8 feet tall, shines exactly the way Trump likes. But online viewers are only talking about what Trump tried to hide beneath his wide suit jackets.
The work was crafted by Danish sculptor Jens Galschiøt. The political artist has spent decades planting his sculptures in public squares worldwide to call out injustice.
“The Orange Plague,” also known as “King of Injustice,” wears 23-carat gold leaf, according to CNN.
But the gold isn’t what has people talking.
The statue shows Trump wearing no clothes, with his stomach hanging as he sits on the shoulders of a frail man who looks ready to buckle.
The president grips a long golf club while the figure underneath strains under his weight.
The plaque spells out the joke: “I am sitting on the back of a man. He is sinking under my burden. I will do anything to help him. Except stepping down from his back.”
On his website, Galschiøt called Trump one of the “greatest threats” to democratic values, the rules-based world order and the fight against climate change.
The gold figure also nods to “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” Hans Christian Andersen’s fable about a vain ruler who parades through town without a stitch on while everyone pretends not to notice.
Danish lawmaker Per Clausen invited the artist to bring the statue to Parliament. He claimed he isn’t concerned about how the POTUS might react.
Clausen told German broadcaster DW that anyone too thin-skinned to tolerate the sculpture has “no place on the world stage.”
The statue will head to the COP31 United Nations climate conference in Turkey next month.
A copper version appeared at a climate march during COP30 in Brazil last November, and protesters also distributed mini 3D-printed versions.
As of Wednesday, neither Trump nor the White House has commented on the statue that has social media fired up.
Plenty of people on X said the artist nailed it. “Quite grotesque … its perfect ,” one user wrote. Another said it “should be moved to the National Mall in DC so Americans can have the chance to appreciate it.”
Another X user called it “a good monument to place at his ballroom after it’s torn down.” A fourth summed it up, simply writing, “The poor man’s burden.”
Not everyone was sold on the stunt. One person who said they dislike Trump “a lot” argued that Parliament should focus on serious debate and called the stunt “not smart.
Galschiøt isn’t the first artist to turn Trump’s love of gold against him. An anonymous collective calling itself the Secret Handshake has practically turned the National Mall into its own gallery.
In June 2025, the group installed “Dictator Approved,” a giant golden thumbs-up crushing the Statue of Liberty’s crown.
This March, it unveiled “King of the World,” a nearly 12-foot gold-painted statue of Trump and Jeffrey Epstein recreating the famous bow scene from “Titanic.”
Weeks later, a gold-painted toilet appeared near the Lincoln Memorial with a plaque reading “A Throne Fit for a King.”
The White House didn’t find the “Titanic” tribute funny.
Spokesperson Abigail Jackson fired back. According to The Hill, he asked when “these wealthy Democrat donors” would sculpt Democrats who kept chasing Epstein’s money and meetings after his conviction.
Trump’s gold obsession has made him an easy target at home, too. He brushed off Laura Ingraham when she asked why he didn’t go with silver during a tour of his gilded Oval Office.
Even Barack Obama couldn’t resist a swipe at the gold “Oval Office” sign Trump added to the White House.
This time, the gold-plated joke is on Trump, and all of Europe has a front-row seat.
🇪🇺🇺🇸 Naked statue of Trump named ‘Orange Plague’ unveiled at European Parliament building in Strasbourg. — The Independent https://t.co/J28hDKgbZX
— Mega Geopolitics (@MegaGeopolitics) October 7, 2026
