$300,000 Trump Gold Statue, a Crazy Memecoin Marketing Stunt

Original Author: David Yaffe-Bellany, The New York Times

Original Compilation: Luffy, Foresight News

This statue of President Trump is called "Don Colossus." It stands 15 feet tall, mounted on a base weighing 7,000 pounds, making its overall height comparable to a two-story building. The colossal statue is cast in bronze and coated with a thick layer of gold leaf. (Note: Don Colossus translates literally to "Giant Don," referring to Trump as a giant.)

For over a year, this gilded statue has been at the center of one of the strangest money-making schemes of the Trump era. A group of cryptocurrency investors spent $300,000 to commission a sculptor to create this statue as a tribute to Trump, a vocal supporter of cryptocurrency.

Subsequently, they used the statue to promote a meme coin named PATRIOT.

Now, unexpectedly, this plan seems to be coming to fruition. Last month, a concrete and stainless steel base was installed at Trump's Doral golf resort complex in Florida. According to message records reviewed by The New York Times, Mark Burns, a friend of Trump and one of the project's organizers, told collaborators that the President plans to attend a local unveiling ceremony for the statue.

"The statue looks great," Trump wrote in a letter to Burns last December.

Alan Cottrill inspects his gilded statue of President Trump in Zanesville, Ohio

Nearly everyone in the cryptocurrency space has tried to profit from Trump's presidency: either by striking business deals with his family or seeking regulatory leniency from his administration. But few have been as audacious as the supporters of PATRIOT.

A meme coin is a type of cryptocurrency with almost no practical function beyond speculation, typically built around viral internet jokes or celebrity images. Its value depends entirely on what online fans are willing to pay. The key to creating a meme coin is generating enough online buzz to make potential buyers believe its price will keep rising.

Building a giant statue is an expensive social media marketing tactic, but also a potentially profitable scheme. According to one of the project's organizers, the investors who funded the statue received large quantities of the token, whose price sometimes skyrocketed. For months, supporters of "Don Colossus" posted progress pictures of the statue on platform X, forged alliances within the "Make America Great Again" camp, aiming for a major marketing victory: placing the statue on Trump's official property.

In late 2024, the PATRIOT meme coin launched, coinciding with Trump's promise to make the U.S. the "crypto capital of the world," causing the token's price to surge. During an event in Washington on the presidential inauguration weekend, supporters of the token gifted a bronze miniature statue to Trump's former advisor Steve Bannon and interacted with other conservative figures.

However, repeated project delays and internal conflicts have cast a shadow over this money-making scheme, offering a glimpse into the volatility of the meme coin market: a market rife with scams where investors often end up losing everything. Last year, PATRIOT's price plummeted, nearly reaching zero. In their rush to complete the statue and boost the token, investors also clashed with Ohio-based sculptor Alan Cottrill.

In text message records reviewed by The New York Times, Cottrill stated that investors still owe him $75,000 for the statue's intellectual property rights.

"You are using my copyrighted statue image to market your token!" he wrote in a message to one of the token supporters last month.

"Yeah, lol, that was the plan from day one," replied Ashley Sansalone, a cryptocurrency developer involved in PATRIOT and another token project called Elon GOAT.

An Elon Musk sculpture commissioned from Alan Cottrill

In a statement, Sansalone said Cottrill would be paid in full before the statue's unveiling. "In any business agreement, a portion is withheld until final delivery is complete," he said.

But it remains unclear when the statue will actually be displayed.

On Monday, after The New York Times inquired with the White House and the Trump Organization about the PATRIOT token, the President's son, Eric Trump, posted a related statement on platform X.

"We appreciate the support and enthusiasm," he said, "but it must be made clear that we are not involved in any way with this token."

Creating "Don Colossus"

The plan to create "Don Colossus" was born in a group chat on the messaging app Telegram, where cryptocurrency enthusiasts often exchange investment tips and promote tokens. It was July 2024, shortly after Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, raising his fist defiantly.

Sansalone wanted to make this defiant image the core of a meme coin. He collaborated with right-wing activist Dustin Stockton, and well-connected cryptocurrency investor Brock Pierce, who has a history of legal and financial entanglements, also joined.

Shortly after a bullet grazed Trump's ear, Sansalone contacted the 73-year-old Cottrill, whose bronze statue of Edison now stands in the U.S. Capitol. Over the years, Cottrill has created statues for over a dozen U.S. presidents, including 10-foot-tall memorial statues of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

Cottrill stands in a room filled with sculptures

The cryptocurrency investors wanted Trump's statue to be taller than his previous works and requested some aesthetic modifications.

"My initial sculpture was very realistic," Cottrill said in an interview last month. "The crypto guys asked me to trim some of the fat from his neck and make him look slimmer."

By the time of Trump's inauguration, Cottrill had completed the statue—a colossal bronze figure, not yet gilded, but the tallest he had ever made. In December, Trump reposted a Breitbart News article about the project on social media, which stated that Stockton was in talks with the Presidential Inaugural Committee to hold an unveiling ceremony for the statue during inauguration weekend.

The timing of this repost was perfect: the PATRIOT token had just launched.

The official website read: "The people's crypto token. The statue no one can erase."

But then, the project faced two major setbacks. Frigid weather in Washington caused logistical issues, forcing the statue unveiling to be postponed. And shortly before the inauguration, Trump launched his own meme coin, TRUMP.

As cryptocurrency traders scrambled to buy the official token, Stockton and Pierce held a "Patriot Awards" event at the National Press Club in Washington, handing out miniature statue models.

"The mood in the room just died because Trump's token suddenly took off," Cottrill said.

By the end of January, PATRIOT's price had plummeted by over 90%.

"A Prime Location"

Despite this setback, the cryptocurrency investors continued their marketing push. In February last year, the infamous former congressman George Santos displayed a miniature Trump statue on Fox News, specifically mentioning the PATRIOT token.

A small gilded statue of Trump with a raised fist, surrounded by several darker versions of the same statue

Stockton reposted the video on platform X, declaring: "This kind of exposure is priceless!" In a brief phone interview, Santos said: "I was paid to advertise it, and I'm always upfront about that."

The investors also courted another influential ally: Burns. The prominent pastor is a Trump confidant, sometimes referred to as the President's informal "spiritual advisor."

After Pierce introduced him to the project team, Burns became involved in the statue work. He quickly became a key figure in reviving the project, suggesting that the bronze statue be coated with gold leaf.

"The President just asked me for photos of the statue with gold leaf," Burns wrote in a message to collaborators last November.

Trump's wish eventually came true. Sansalone told the team he consulted a New York-based gold leaf supplier that had previously worked on Trump Tower. Cottrill also shared updated photos of the finished statue.

"So shiny, so beautiful," Sansalone replied.

"Wow... sending this to the President," Burns wrote.

Clearly, Trump was impressed by the statue. Last month, Cottrill traveled to Florida to install the 7,000-pound base at the Trump National Doral golf resort. Stockton boasted on social media that it was a "prime location." In a text message to collaborators this January, Burns said White House schedulers were "actively finalizing" a date for the President to attend the statue's official unveiling ceremony.

Trump National Doral Golf Club in Florida

This should have been Cottrill's moment of glory, but he says he's had enough of the cryptocurrency investors behind it.

Cottrill stated that he only discovered in the fall of 2024 that these cryptocurrency investors were using his work's image to market a digital currency, which he believes infringes on his intellectual property.

Eventually, he reached an agreement with the investors: they would pay $150,000 for the statue's copyright. But he claims he still hasn't received the remaining balance, and with other outstanding fees, they owe him approximately $90,000 in total.

Cryptocurrency investors demanded that Trump's statue be sufficiently tall and requested some aesthetic modifications

"In my view, they never purchased this intellectual property and are now using it illegally," he said. "Unless all outstanding payments are settled, this statue will not leave my foundry."

But the project's organizers argue that the venture hasn't actually made much money.

Burns said he never requested or received any payment. Stockton stated in an interview that the PATRIOT token was merely a fundraising tool intended "to fund all things related to the statue."

"I haven't seen anyone making big money off this," Stockton said.

Kimberly Benza, a spokesperson for the Trump Organization, said the company was unaware of the meme coin's existence until The New York Times inquired about it this week. She did not respond to questions about whether the statue unveiling would proceed as planned.

The controversy hasn't stopped the project's social media promotion. An X account linked to the token recently posted photos of the statue base in Doral and pinned a message detailing how to purchase the meme coin.

"The dream is still alive," Sansalone said during a live stream with Burns on January 16.

Beyond the giant statue, the team also hopes to gift Trump a matching gilded miniature statue. "We hope to have a piece in the Oval Office," Sansalone said.