A new statue mocking Donald Trump was installed Monday on Washington’s National Mall, this time mocking the bone spurs the US president was diagnosed with, which allowed him to postpone drafting for the Vietnam War.
Just two days before Veterans Day, the golden statue – titled The Foot Soldier – appeared near the sculpture garden of the National Gallery of Art. Created by Secret Handshake, a group of anonymous artists, the statue depicts Trump sitting while rubbing his bare foot.
“We honor the service and sacrifice of our Commander in Chief, Donald J. Trump. He is a soldier in spirit who marched to the front lines to dodge the draft, armed with a perfect diagnosis of bone spurs,” reads a plaque on the statue.
The artwork references allegations that Trump dodged the Vietnam War in 1968 by being diagnosed with bone spurs in his heels after graduating from college.
“We salute a leader who knows that sacrifice cannot be synonymous with ‘me,’ and a warrior who reminds us that sometimes, when called to stand, it is best to just sit down and rest your feet,” the plaque reads.
“Toey,” a 7-foot-tall toe mascot suffering from bone spurs, stood next to the art installation serving as an interactive element, Secret Handshake said in a statement.
“A holdout? I barely know her,” one person dressed as Toey told the Washington Post. “I’m the biggest toe. The biggest toe. Huge. The biggest toe. The biggest toe anyone’s ever seen.”
Trump has faced allegations of dodging since his first term. In 2018, the New York Times published an article accusing a Queens pediatrician of doing Trump’s father a “favor” by diagnosing him with bone spurs. In 2019, Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, told Congress that the president had deliberately avoided the project.
White House spokesman David Ingle said in a statement: “Trump Derangement Syndrome is a sick and incurable disease that has rotted the brains of these Democratic activists. President Trump will never waver in his fight for and protection of the American people.”
The secret handshake also erected statues mocking Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and Trump’s renovation of Lincoln’s bathroom during a government shutdown.
Last year, the group of anonymous artists created Best Friends Forever, a statue that showed Trump holding Epstein’s hand. In March, the secret handshake installed a statue called King of the World, which depicted Trump holding Epstein in a Titanic-inspired pose.
The infantryman and Toey will be at the National Mall during Veterans Day, the secret handshake said.
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