The 6-foot-tall statue drew attention as it was taken to the Hyatt Regency on Thursday night, while CPAC participants took their registration and walked around the hotel. The statue was on its way to the conference exhibition hall, where it found a home on a booth for a conservative nonprofit organization called Look Ahead America.
Tommy Zegan, an artist living in California, created the Trump statue in response to the various pieces of art mocking Trump.
“Two years ago, when I saw all those statues of Trump and Trump naked in a bathroom, I said, ‘You know what, I can do better,'” Zegan told CNN on Friday as participants gathered around the statue to take pictures with her.
Zegan said the piece on display at CPAC is actually the fiberglass mold of the actual stainless steel sculpture currently stored in a warehouse in Tampa, where a potentially high profile showcase awaits.
“It’s museum-quality, and that’s what I hope to achieve at the Trump library,” said Zegan. “It is literally priceless.”
The statue is perhaps the most extreme celebration at the CPAC of the ex-president, who will speak here on Sunday in his first public appearance since leaving office. Zegan says that every aspect of the statue – which puts Trump in a jacket, American flag-themed shorts and flip-flop sandals – is meant to be symbolic.
“The jacket and tie are the fact that he is a professional, a businessman,” said Zegan. “The red tie symbolizes that he is a Republican. The red, white and blue is that he is a patriot. The fact that he is wearing thongs and shorts is that he is at the age he should be retired. He should be on the beach now . “
But when asked if he would like Trump to retire easily or run for president again in 2024, Zegan was emphatic.
“I would be ecstatic,” he said. “If he wants it to happen, it will happen.”