The Golden Trump Statue Came Back to CPAC But Not Without Some Major Drama Along the Way

Tommy Zegan knows how to make a splash. At last year’s gathering of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), his gold statue of former President Donald Trump went viral. When the conference returned to Orlando, Florida this week, the giant golden Man from Mar-A-Lago was back, but not without some serious drama along the way that includes international shipping disputes, accusations of statue-napping, police reports, threatened lawsuits — and an unauthorized paint job.

As Mediaite editor in chief Aidan McLaughlin reported from CPAC 2021, Zegan designed “Trump and his magic wand” as a response to former President Barack Obama’s quip that Trump didn’t have a magic wand to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States, and because he was frustrated at less flattering artwork that ridiculed Trump.

The statue, as shown below, sported multi-colored metallic tones, with the former president’s distinctive citrus-hued swoop of hair, trademark red tie and navy jacket — as well as the uncustomary-for-Trump shorts and flip flops. Photos and videos of the statue being wheeled through the hotel corridors at CPAC went viral, with many social media users making mocking references to the Golden Calf from the Bible’s Old Testament.

Zegan had bristled at that comparison, telling McLaughlin he had been a youth pastor for years. “I know the biblical definition of an idol. This is not an idol. This is a sculpture.”

Fast forward to this year, and the golden Trump statue was back — well, to be clear, it looked a lot like last year’s statue but was now one solid gold color. Mediaite first spotted the attention-grabbing sculpture on Friday in the CPAC Exhibition Hall at the booth for Patriot Mobile, “America’s only Christian conservative wireless provider.”

The statue was later moved to an atrium area between Radio Row and the entrance to the main conference ballroom, and a small pile of flyers left on the base inviting people to “Pre Order the tell all Book” titled The Truth Behind The Trump Sculpture for $19.95, saying that it would explain “How SpectraChrome from Clearwater, Fl. ruined my Trump Sculpture after paying them $25,000.00 for their Chrome paint job.”

Something strange was going on. Was this indeed the same statue that generated such buzz last year? Why was it a different color? And what’s with the shorts and flip flops, a fashion choice I’m fairly certain I’ve never seen Trump make?

By sheer luck, Mediaite ran into Zegan in the waning hours of the conference on Sunday, standing right next to his shiny Trumpian artwork. I asked him what was happening with this “infamous CPAC installation” and he was more than happy to share the unusual tale.

Zegan explained that he had actually made three of the 6’3″ Trump statues.

“The first one was the fiberglass mold,” he said. “The second one was the stainless steel one that we introduced last year at the CPAC, and the third one is this bronze one that I had made.”

Zegan’s art studio is in Rosarito Beach, Mexico. He was annoyed at some of the news reports last year that claimed his statue had been “made in China,” telling Mediaite that he had designed it at his studio in Mexico, made a prototype there, and then sent the specs to China for manufacture.

“The first one, the fiberglass mold, was stolen,” Zegan continued, describing how a man he had hired to apply paint to the statue had “totally lied,” claimed to be Zegan’s partner, and somehow arranged for the statue to be shipped to California last summer.

“Just a whole bunch of hogwash” ensued after that. Zegan said he attempted to file a police report against the man with the Clearwater, Florida police department, but they told him it was out of their jurisdiction because the statue was now physically in California.

According to Zegan, he had paid the painter’s company SpectraChrome $25,000 to have the stainless steel statue painted in the patriotic color scheme seen at last year’s CPAC. After their dispute over the fiberglass mold, Zegan said he “got mad and he went ahead and sealed it with some gray paint, basically a primer, and ruined the paint job.”

Zegan added that this man “stole the statues” and is now “claiming that he’s the artist,” but “he’s a nobody, he doesn’t have an art studio, he doesn’t have an art gallery, but yet he’s claiming that this was his art.”

“So it’s just been a real mess.” Zegan said he was “in litigation” against him but later clarified that to say that the complaint would be filed in a Clearwater court “soon.”

The only statue he has left is the bronze one, which bears such a resemblance to the previous year’s incarnation because they both came from the same mold, but is solid gold in color.

The viral reaction to the original statue inspired Zegan to make a solid gold one, he said, to mock the idea that it was a golden idol,  joking that he’d love to see “all the liberals…come and bow down to it…this is my golden Trump idol for them.”

I also asked him about the unique design of the statue. Zegan explained that the design was illustrated in more detail in the original multicolored one, with the patriotic attire, red flip flops, and the flat object in Trump’s hand painted to represent the U.S. Constitution.

“First of all, it was supposed to be like a party. Rob Zombie’s Donald Trump,” said Zegan, describing his sculpture as “kind of a cartoon character.” Much of the artwork available on Zegan’s website other than the Trump statues is pop art, keeping with the cartoon theme.

“The flip flops were because he’s supposed to be retired,” Zegan continued. “He should be on the beach in Boca Raton. The second is that he had red, white and blue swimming trunks on, which means he should be out, you know, at the pool getting a suntan. He had a red tie on, which basically symbolized that he was with the Republican Party. He had a blue blazer on which was to symbolize that he’s a professional businessman.”

The wand, Zegan confirmed what he had told Mediaite last year, was in response to Obama’s remarks.

Zegan also has a “Trump Superman” statue he has designed and had manufactured. That was actually his plan for this year’s CPAC, to bring the Kryptonian version of the former prez, but he ran into delays when the wrong IT number was on the shipping container and “Super Trump got held up in customs.”

So he brought the golden Trump instead, and is now planning to cart the Super Trump to the next CPAC event, scheduled for later this year in Dallas, Tex.

Watch above. Video by Sarah Rumpf for Mediaite.

Follow Mediaite’s CPAC 2022 coverage here.