$300,000 to create a Trump gold-plated statue, sparking a frenzy in Meme coin marketing campaigns.

Author: 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, placed on a base weighing 7,000 pounds, with an overall height comparable to a two-story building. The giant sculpture is cast in bronze and coated with a thick layer of gold leaf. (Note: Don Colossus literally translates to “Giant Donald,” referring to Trump as a giant.)

For over a year, this gilded statue has been at the heart of one of the most bizarre gold rush projects 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 openly supports cryptocurrencies.

They then used the statue to promote a Meme coin called PATRIOT.

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

“This statue looks amazing,” Trump wrote in a letter to Burns last December.

Alan Cottrill inspecting the Trump gilded statue he designed in Zanesville, Ohio

Almost everyone in the cryptocurrency field has tried to profit from Trump’s presidency: either by making business deals with his family or seeking regulatory easing from his administration. But few have been as bold as supporters of PATRIOT.

Meme coins are a type of cryptocurrency that serve little purpose beyond speculation, often built around viral jokes or celebrity images, with their value entirely dependent on how much network fans are willing to pay. The key to creating a Meme coin is generating enough online buzz to convince potential buyers that its price will keep rising.

Building a giant statue is an expensive form of social media hype, but it’s also a potential profit-making scheme. According to one organizer, investors funding the statue received large amounts of the associated tokens, which sometimes see sharp price surges. Over the months, supporters of “Don Colossus” posted progress updates on the X platform and formed alliances within the “Make America Great Again” camp, aiming for a marketing victory: to have the statue installed at Trump’s official properties.

By the end of 2024, the PATRIOT Meme coin was officially launched, coinciding with Trump’s promise to make the U.S. the “global cryptocurrency capital,” causing the token’s price to spike. During an event held in Washington during the President’s inauguration weekend, supporters presented Trump’s former advisor Steve Bannon with a bronze mini statue and interacted with other conservatives.

However, repeated delays and internal disputes cast a shadow over the gold rush plan, revealing the turbulence in the Meme coin market: a market flooded with scams, where investors often end up losing everything. Last year, the PATRIOT token’s price plummeted nearly to zero. To rush the completion of the statue and boost the token, investors clashed with Ohio-based sculptor Alan Cottrill.

In text messages reviewed by The New York Times, Cottrill said investors still owed him $75,000 for intellectual property rights related to the statue.

“You’re using my copyrighted image of the statue to promote your token!” he wrote last month in a message to one of the supporters.

“Yeah, haha, we planned to do that from day one,” replied Ashley Sansalone. Sansalone is a cryptocurrency developer involved in the PATRIOT project and another token called Elon GOAT.

Alan Cottrill’s sculpture of Elon Musk

Sansalone stated in a statement that the full payment to Cottrill would be made 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’s still unclear when the statue will be officially displayed.

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

“We appreciate everyone’s support and enthusiasm,” he said, “but to be clear, we have not been involved in any way with this token.”

Creating “Don Colossus”

The plan to create “Don Colossus” originated in a group chat on the messaging app Telegram. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts often use this platform to exchange investment tips and promote tokens. It was July 2024, shortly after Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, when he raised his fist with a determined expression.

Sansalone wanted to turn this rebellious image into the core symbol of a Meme coin. He collaborated with right-wing activist Dustin Stockton, and well-connected crypto investor Brock Pierce also joined, despite Pierce’s history of legal and financial disputes.

Shortly after a bullet grazed Trump’s ear, Sansalone contacted 73-year-old Cottrill, whose bronze sculpture of Edison is now displayed in the U.S. Capitol. Over the years, Cottrill has sculpted statues of more than a dozen U.S. Presidents, including 10-foot-high memorials of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

Cottrill standing in a room filled with sculptures

These cryptocurrency investors hope Trump’s statue will be taller than previous works and have requested some visual modifications.

“My initial sculpture was very realistic,” Cottrill said in an interview last month. “The crypto crowd asked me to trim some of the excess flesh around his neck and make him a bit slimmer.”

By the time Trump took office, Cottrill had completed the sculpture. The bronze giant was not yet gilded at that time but was the tallest of all his works. In December last year, Trump reposted a report from Breitbart News about the project, which stated Stockton was communicating with the presidential inauguration committee to plan a unveiling during the inauguration weekend.

The timing of this repost was perfect: it was shortly after the PATRIOT token’s initial launch.

The official website described it as “a cryptocurrency belonging to the people, with an indelible statue.”

But the project soon faced two major setbacks. Cold weather in Washington caused logistical issues, forcing the postponement of the unveiling; and just before the inauguration, Trump launched his own Meme coin, TRUMP.

While crypto traders scrambled to buy this official token, Stockton and Pierce held an “Patriot Award” event at the National Press Club in Washington, distributing mini models of the statue on site.

“The atmosphere was suddenly cold because Trump’s token price skyrocketed,” Cottrill said.

By the end of January, ATRIOT’s price had fallen over 90%.

“A ‘Treasure Land’”

Despite these setbacks, the crypto investors continued their marketing efforts. In February last year, the infamous former Congressman George Santos showcased a Trump mini statue on Fox News, explicitly mentioning the PATRIOT token.

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

Stockton reposted this video on X, claiming: “This kind of exposure, you can’t buy it!” In a brief phone interview, Santos said, “I took money to promote it, and I’ve always been straightforward about that.”

The investors also tried to recruit another influential ally: Burns. This well-known pastor is a close confidant of Trump and sometimes referred to as the President’s unofficial “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 pushing for the project’s restart, proposing to gild the bronze statue with gold leaf.

“The President just asked me for photos of the statue after it was gilded,” Burns wrote in a message to collaborators last November.

Trump’s wish was finally fulfilled. Sansalone told the team that he consulted a gold leaf supplier in New York that had previously decorated Trump Tower. Cottrill also shared the latest photos of the finished statue.

“It’s dazzling, exquisite,” Sansalone replied.

“Wow… I’ll send this to the President,” Burns wrote.

Clearly, Trump was moved by the statue. Last month, Cottrill traveled to Florida and installed the 7,000-pound base at Trump’s Doral golf resort. Stockton boasted on social media that it was a “treasure land.” In a January message to collaborators, Burns said the White House schedule staff was “actively finalizing” the date for the President’s attendance at the official unveiling.

Florida Trump National Doral Golf Course

This should have been Cottrill’s moment to shine, but he said he’s had enough of the cryptocurrency investors behind the scenes.

Cottrill stated that until fall 2024, he only recently discovered that these investors were using his artwork to promote a digital currency, which he believes infringes on his intellectual property rights.

In the end, he reached an agreement with the investors: they would pay him $150,000 for the statue’s copyright. But he claims he has yet to receive the remaining funds, and with other unpaid fees, they still owe him about $90,000.

Cryptocurrency investors demanded the statue be tall enough and proposed some visual modifications

“In my opinion, they never bought the rights, and they’re using it illegally,” he said. “Unless all debts are settled, this statue will never leave my foundry.”

But the project organizers argue that the project has not made much money.

Burns said he has never asked for or received any compensation. Stockton, in an interview, said that the PATRIOT token is just a fundraising tool intended to “support the funding of all matters related to the statue.”

“I haven’t seen anyone making big money from this,” Stockton said.

A spokesperson for the Trump Organization, Kimberly Benza, stated that the company only learned about the Meme coin after The New York Times inquired this week. She did not respond to questions about whether the unveiling ceremony would proceed as scheduled.

The farce has not stopped the project’s promotion on social media. An account associated with the token recently posted photos of the Doral statue’s base and pinned a detailed message explaining how to purchase the Meme coin.

“This dream still lives,” Sansalone said during a live broadcast with Burns on January 16.

Besides the giant statue, the team also hopes to gift Trump a miniature gilded version of the same design. “We want to have a collectible in the Oval Office,” Sansalone said.