Written by: David Yaffe-Bellany, The New York Times
Compiled by: 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 total height comparable to a two-story building. The giant statue is cast in bronze and plated 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 gold-plated statue has been at the heart 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, who has been outspoken in his support for cryptocurrency.
Subsequently, they used the statue to promote a Meme coin called PATRIOT.
Now, unexpectedly, this plan seems to be coming to fruition. Last month, a base made of concrete and stainless steel was installed at Trump's golf resort complex in Doral, Florida. According to message records reviewed by The New York Times, Mark Burns, a close associate of Trump and one of the organizers of the plan, told collaborators that the President plans to attend the local unveiling ceremony for the statue.
"The statue looks great," Trump wrote in a letter to Burns last December.
Alan Cottrill inspects his designed gold-plated statue of President Trump in Zanesville, Ohio
Almost 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 backers of PATRIOT.
Meme coins are a type of cryptocurrency with almost no function other than speculation, often built around viral internet jokes or celebrity images, their 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 way to create social media hype, but it's also a potentially profitable plan. According to one of the organizers, the investors who funded the statue received large quantities of the token, the price of which sometimes skyrocketed. For months, supporters of "Don Colossus" posted progress pictures of the statue's creation on platform X, forging alliances within the "Make America Great Again" camp, aiming for a marketing coup: getting the statue placed on Trump's official property.
In late 2024, the PATRIOT Meme coin was officially launched, coinciding with Trump's promise to make the U.S. the "crypto capital of the world." The token's price surged initially. During an event in Washington on the presidential inauguration weekend, the token's supporters presented a miniature bronze statue to Trump's former advisor Steve Bannon and interacted with other conservative figures.
But repeated project delays and internal disputes 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. To rush the completion of the statue and boost the token, investors also clashed with Alan Cottrill, the sculptor based in Ohio.
In text messages reviewed by The New York Times, Cottrill stated that the investors still owed him $75,000 for the intellectual property rights to the statue.
"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, haha, we planned to do that from day one," replied Ashley Sansalone. Sansalone is a cryptocurrency developer involved in another token project called Elon GOAT, besides PATRIOT.
An Elon Musk sculpture commissioned and designed by Alan Cottrill
Sansalone said in a statement that Cottrill would be paid in full before the statue's unveiling. "In any commercial agreement, a portion of the payment is withheld until the finished product is delivered," he said.
But it remains unclear when the statue will actually be officially displayed.
This past 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 everyone's support and enthusiasm," he said, "but it must be clear that we are not involved in any matters related to this token."
Creating "Don Colossus"
The plan to create "Don Colossus" was born in a group chat on the instant messaging app Telegram, a platform where cryptocurrency enthusiasts often exchange investment tips and promote tokens. It was July 2024, just after Trump had narrowly survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, where he raised 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 troubles, also joined.
Shortly after the bullet grazed Trump's ear, Sansalone contacted the 73-year-old Cottrill, whose bronze statue of Edison is now displayed in the U.S. Capitol. Over the years, Cottrill has created statues of 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. "Those crypto guys asked me to trim some of the fat on his neck and slim down his figure a bit."
By the time of Trump's inauguration, Cottrill had completed the statue. The giant bronze figure, not yet gold-plated, was the tallest he had ever made. Last December, Trump reposted a Breitbart News article about the project on social media. The article stated that Stockton was communicating with the presidential inaugural committee about plans to hold a statue unveiling ceremony during the inauguration weekend.
The timing of this repost was perfect: the PATRIOT token had just been launched.
The official website read: "The crypto token for the people, the statue that no one can erase."
But then, the project suffered two major setbacks. Freezing weather in Washington caused a series of logistical problems, forcing the statue unveiling plan to be shelved; 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 models of the statue.
"The atmosphere suddenly cooled because Trump's token price suddenly skyrocketed," Cottrill said.
By the end of January, the price of PATRIOT had plummeted by over 90%.
"A Prime Location"
Despite this setback, the cryptocurrency investors continued their marketing push. Last February, the disgraced former Congressman George Santos displayed a miniature Trump statue on Fox News, specifically mentioning the PATRIOT token.
A small gold-plated statue of Trump with a raised fist, surrounded by several darker versions of the same statue
Stockton reposted the video on platform X, proclaiming: "This kind of exposure is priceless!" In a brief phone interview, Santos said: "I was paid to advertise it, I'm always upfront about that."
The investors also courted another influential ally: Burns. The prominent pastor is a confidant of Trump and is sometimes referred to as the president's informal "spiritual advisor."
After Pierce introduced him to the project team, Burns began participating in the statue-related work. He quickly became a key figure in reviving the project, suggesting that the bronze statue be plated with gold leaf.
"The President just asked me for photos of the statue after it's gold-plated," Burns wrote in a message to collaborators last November.
Trump's wish eventually came true. Sansalone informed the team that he had consulted a gold leaf supplier in New York that had previously provided decorations for Trump Tower. Cottrill also shared the latest finished photos of the statue.
"So dazzling, so exquisite," Sansalone replied.
"Wow...... sending this to the President now," 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 complex. Stockton boasted on social media that it was a "prime location." Burns said in a text message to collaborators in January that White House schedulers were "actively finalizing" the date for the President to attend the official statue unveiling ceremony.
Trump National Doral Golf Club in Florida
This should have been Cottrill's moment of glory, but he says he has had enough of the cryptocurrency investors behind it.
Cottrill stated that it wasn't until the fall of 2024 that he discovered these cryptocurrency investors were using images of his work to market a digital currency, which he believed infringed on his intellectual property.
Eventually, he reached an agreement with the investors: they would pay a $150,000 copyright fee for the statue. But he claims he has not received the remaining payment, and with other outstanding fees, they still owe him about $90,000 in total.
Cryptocurrency investors demanded that Trump's statue be sufficiently large and requested some aesthetic modifications
"In my view, they never actually acquired this intellectual property and are now using it illegally," he said. "Unless all debts are settled, this statue will absolutely not leave my foundry."
But the organizers of the plan argue that this project hasn't actually made much money.
Burns said he never asked for or received any payment. Stockton said in an interview that the PATRIOT token was merely a financing tool intended "to provide funding support for various matters related to the statue."
"I haven't seen anyone make big money from this," Stockton said.
Kimberly Benza, a spokesperson for the Trump Organization, said the company was unaware of the existence of this Meme coin until The New York Times inquired about it this week. She did not respond to questions about whether the statue unveiling ceremony would proceed as planned.
The farce has not stopped the project's promotion on social media. An X account associated with 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 16th.
In addition to the giant statue, the team also hopes to present Trump with a gold-plated miniature version of the same statue. "We hope to have a piece displayed in the Oval Office," Sansalone said.
