A gold-painted statue of President Donald Trump gripping his own foot in apparent agony showed up on the National Mall on Monday, accompanied by a costumed mascot named Toey dressed as a giant toe complete with a protruding bone spur. The piece, titled The Foot Soldier, depicts Trump seated on a pedestal, grimacing as he clutches his right foot, and lands just two days before Veterans Day.
The anonymous artists behind it have taunted Trump and his administration with more than a dozen statues and installations around Washington, according to The Washington Post. This latest work takes aim squarely at Trump's history of avoiding military service during the Vietnam War, a saga that has become a recurring theme for the group's guerrilla art campaign across the capital.
The statue sits opposite the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden, according to City Cast DC, which reported that it appears to be the latest installation from an anonymous collective known as The Secret Handshake. A plaque beside the statue leans into the mockery, sarcastically describing Trump as someone who is a soldier in spirit, who marched to the front lines of dodging the draft, per the outlet's report.
Toey the Mascot Steals the Spotlight
Standing beside the statue was Toey, a mascot dressed in a full big-toe costume with its own protruding bone spur, according to City Cast DC's report. The mascot's appearance added a theatrical flourish to what has become a signature move for the artists, who favor spectacle alongside their sculpture work.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the satire stems from a diagnosis Trump received in 1968, which led to a medical exemption during the Vietnam War. The bone-spur deferment has long been a point of public scrutiny and, now, apparently, public art.
How Long Will It Stay Up?
The Secret Handshake says the installation will be up through Veterans Day on Wednesday, Nov. 11, according to Forbes. Whether that timeline holds remains to be seen, given the group's history with similarly short-lived Mall installations.
This is far from the collective's first swing at Trump. City Cast DC's report notes the group has previously installed a golden toilet outside the Lincoln Memorial and a statue depicting Trump and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein holding hands. That golden toilet piece, titled A Throne Fit for a King, appeared near the Lincoln Monument in March as a 10-foot sculpture, with the Secret Handshake claiming responsibility in an email to ARTnews and saying it would be on display for several days, per Forbes' earlier reporting.
Another of the group's works, a 12-foot Trump-and-Epstein statue called Best Friends Forever, went up on the Mall during Friendship Month in September. Forbes described the group's sculptures as unauthorized. Whether The Foot Soldier meets a similar fate before Wednesday is an open question the artists themselves haven't answered.
