This has been causing bewilderment. It showed up at the CPAC meeting this weekend, reportedly:
Yep, that’s a statue of former President Trump. Assuming this isn’t a really cool hoax, it’s worth taking a quick moment to understand the elements of this statue.
First, it’s a bit bigger, I think, than life-size, emphasizing Trump’s dominance of the conservative scene these days, and playing to his fantasies concerning superiority. At 6’4″, he’s accustomed to being the biggest guy in the room, especially at his age.
But it does have a goofy grin. I look forward to hearing readers’ commentary on that. Perhaps it’s a reflection of the marketing and charisma chops that some believe he has.
It’s made to look like it’s made of gold. It’s easy enough to write that off as a tribute to his well-known love of wealth, but I think exploring this aspect will add some insight. Readers will recall that Trump grew up in the prosperity church of Norman Vincent Peale, and that his key constituency is the evangelical community, which contains much or all of the prosperity church community. In prosperity churches, the more wealth you have, the higher your social prestige, so this is just what you think it is: a signal to that community that Trump is so fabulously rich that he might as well be a Saint and sup next to old St. Pete.
Seriously.
Next, we get to what some observers interpret as shorts, but I think is underwear. This flaunting of male sexuality is, according to those studying Christian Nationalism, typical of the specimen, clinging to a sexual stereotype from the 1950s: Him big he-man. Nevermind that he skipped military service, of course. His sexual depravities have only reinforced his position with the Christian Nationalists.
And, finally, those anomalous sandals. Has there ever been a picture of Trump in sandals? Well, I do not have exhaustive knowledge of him and his footwear, but it seems unlikely.
But they do remind me of a movie: The Ten Commandments (1956). This is the archetypcal Hollywood Christian historical blockbuster, and a very good movie – I’ve watched it several times, although not since I started writing movie reviews. And what’s the common footwear in that movie? Sandals. I believe these are a reference to the religious history of Christian Nationalism, no matter how blurry a reference that might be for a prosperity church member to make. It’s a reminder of the tie between Donald Trump and God that has been alleged by the more desperate of the power-hungry.
This is all about reinforcing the bond between Trump and his most fervent admirers, the marks that he’s conned, is conning, and will continue to con for the foreseeable future. It’ll be interesting to hear how much of a legend the statue becomes post-CPAC.
