Texas museum forced to remove Donald Trump's statue because everyone loves punching it

Does Donald Trump have a punchable face? Some would say the question is rhetorical but the people of Texas have chosen to answer it anyway. A wax museum in Texas was forced to remove a wax statue of the former US president from their display after it was repeatedly punched by visitors. The staff at Louis Tussaud’s Waxworks in San Antonio, Texas, had no choice but to move the statue to a storage room after visitors kept attacking it, reported The Independent. The wax figure was punched, scratched, and damaged repeatedly leaving the museum with no choice but to remove it from public view. 

“When it’s a highly political figure, attacks can be a problem,” said Clay Stewart, regional manager for Ripley Entertainment, which owns the museum, according to San Antonio Express-News. Initially, the museum sought to protect the wax figure by placing it in the front lobby where security could keep an eye on the statue but that didn't appear to deter visitors who continued attacking the former President's statue. The museum finally removed the statue after four years of the Trump Presidency. Trump's statue sat between Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un but yet it was Trump that got a fist in his face with alarming regularity. Jimmy Kimmel poked fun at Trump on his show. “This should tell you something—look at the other two guys he’s posed with: Putin and Kim Jong-un. And the one getting punched in the face every day? Trump!” said Kimmel. “It’s our own guy. And what a likeness… why he has Heather Locklear’s hair, I don’t know. Anyway, because of all the violent attacks, they had to take the statue down. That’s a shame. Why not just fill it with candy and give everyone a bag?” added Kimmel.

Another Trump statue that made the headlines was a golden likeness of the president at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida, earlier this year, reported MSN News. While many had argued that Trump's influence on the GOP had waned since he lost the elections, this was a good indication of where the party stood as far as Trump was concerned. The statue had the former president wearing a suit jacket with a tie, stars and stripe boxing shorts, and red sandals. Television host Joy Reid tweeted: "As many people have noted in the replies, it appears the conservative 'Christians' of the Trumpian right have gone all-in on worshipping their golden calf." Legal analyst Joyce Alene wrote, "This is what the Republican Party has reduced itself to. Worshippers of the golden Trump. Also, I've never seen this expression on Trump's face. It looks almost like they're trying to morph him into something Reagan-esque." 

Another Trump wax statue fell out of favor recently. The Madame Tussauds in Berlin put the wax statue of the President in a dumpster ahead of the US presidential election last year. “We here at Madame Tussauds Berlin removed Donald Trump’s waxwork as a preparatory measure,” said the museum’s marketing manager Orkide Yalcindag at the time. 

The Trump float was a popular mode of protest against the President's actions. A group in the UK arranged for a float of Donald Trump as a giant baby when the president visited Britain. Similarly, Trump was greeted with a 14-foot inflatable rat that had his likeness when he visited Baltimore in 2019 after denigrating the city, calling it "disgusting" and "roden-infested".  The crowds welcomed the president with chants of "Fuck You Trump," and the inflatable rat, reported Baltimore Sun. Trump's motorcade made its way through a crowd of protestors. They made placards and chanted against Trump's racist rants, and anti-immigrant policies. Referencing Trump's attack on Democratic representative Elijah Cummings, Baltimore residents protested using different rat-themed props with one of the more prominent props being the inflatable rat. It showed Trump as a rat, in a full suit with a red tie, holding a little phone in his hands.