San Antonio Wax Museum Forced to Move Trump Figure Into Storage Because People Won’t Stop Punching It

 
donald trump wax figure

Photo credit: Isabel Infantes, AFP via Getty Images.

Wax museums frequently rotate their celebrity figurines, to make way for new trends and names in the news, but one such attraction in San Antonio, Tex. had to move their wax doppelgänger of former President Donald Trump to storage for a very different reason: visitors keep punching and scratching it.

According to the San Antonio Express-News, the Louis Tussaud’s Waxworks on Alamo Plaza has removed their faux-Trump from publicly viewable areas because visitors are “pummeling him.”

Clay Stewart, regional manager for Ripley Entertainment, the parent company of the museum, confirmed the damage to the Express-News, including “deep” scratches to the Trump figure’s face.

Assaults on the Trump figure spiked as the 2020 election drew closer, and the museum tried moving him to the front lobby where the ticket attendants could keep an eye on him, but even that did not deter attacks. Museum management gave up in July and quietly moved him out of sight, finally confirming the move this week.

“When it’s a highly political figure, attacks can be a problem,” said Stewart, who added that Trump wasn’t the only one to have been attacked by proxy through his wax likeness. “We’ve always had trouble with the presidential section because no matter what president it was — [George W. Bush, Barack Obama, or Trump] — they’ve all had people beat them,” said Stewart. “The ears were torn off Obama six times. And then Bush’s nose was punched in.”

Some hopeful news for the wax version of America’s 45th president: Obama’s figure has gotten much less abuse and managed to keep his ears attached since the real Obama’s term ended.

Trump won’t have to stay in storage forever. Repairs are planned, and a President Joe Biden figure is being constructed at the company headquarters in Orlando, Fl. to join his predecessor in a new display. Until then, Trump has America’s first president, George Washington, to keep him company.

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Sarah Rumpf joined Mediaite in 2020 and is a Contributing Editor focusing on politics, law, and the media. A native Floridian, Sarah attended the University of Florida, graduating with a double major in Political Science and German, and earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the UF College of Law. Sarah's writing has been featured at National Review, The Daily Beast, Reason, Law&Crime, Independent Journal Review, Texas Monthly, The Capitolist, Breitbart Texas, Townhall, RedState, The Orlando Sentinel, and the Austin-American Statesman, and her political commentary has led to appearances on television, radio, and podcast programs across the globe. Follow Sarah on Threads, Twitter, and Bluesky.