The New York Times published a curious item in early February, highlighting something called Don Colossus — an enormous bronze statue in honor of Donald Trump featuring a thick layer of gold leaf.

“For more than a year, the golden statue has been at the center of one of the stranger moneymaking ventures of the Trump era,” the Times noted. “A group of cryptocurrency investors paid $300,000 to have a sculptor create it as a tribute to Mr. Trump, an outspoken crypto proponent. Then they used it to promote a memecoin called $PATRIOT.”

The article added that the cryptocurrency investors hoped the statue would soon be installed at one of the president’s Florida golf courses. Evidently, they got their wish. The Daily Beast reported:

A bizarre unveiling of a 22-foot golden statue of President Donald Trump has taken place at one of his golf clubs — complete with a dedication from an evangelical pastor. […]

The ceremony was led by Pastor Mark Burns, who has been a member of Pastors for Trump since 2023 and is seen as the president’s informal spiritual adviser. The White House insists it has not been involved in the project, but Burns said Trump called him and addressed the crowd directly.

About a month after Trump left the White House after his 2020 defeat, the then-former president spoke at a Conservative Political Action Conference, which was notable in large part because it featured a golden statue of him that was wheeled around, to the delight of attendees.

More than five years later, however, Don Colossus is far larger; it’s found a permanent home at a Trump-owned property; and it’s received the president’s direct blessing — complete with promotion on his social media platform and a call into last week’s dedication ceremony, led in part by MAGA religious leaders.

It was hard not to wonder how many attendees were familiar with the biblical story of the golden calf, those who worshipped it and how the story in the Book of Exodus ended. (For his part, Burns insisted online, “Let me be clear: this is not a golden calf.” He similarly rejected the idea in a recent interview that the golden Trump statue should be seen as an “idol.” That said, once someone reaches the point at which such a denial is necessary, they’ve pretty much lost the debate.)

What’s more, as literal idolization of Trump takes an exceedingly creepy turn, it’s hard not to notice the president’s preoccupation with giant statues of himself.

In February, for example, the Republican promoted an artificial intelligence-generated video of Trump’s vision for the future of Gaza, which included a giant golden statue of Trump in the middle of an apparent thoroughfare. He later indicated that he wants and expects a statue to honor him in Venezuela.

In case that wasn’t quite enough, in March, he also unveiled an AI-generated video related to his future presidential library, which showed two gold statues of Trump.

It led New York magazine’s Margaret Hartmann to note, “It says a lot about our current president that in response to the news that a giant gold statue of Donald Trump was dedicated this week, you have to ask, ‘Which one?’”

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