Pastor Says Comparing Gold Trump Statue To 'Golden Calf' Is 'Blasphemy'

A new monument has appeared at Trump National Doral in Miami, and it is impossible to mistake its subject. The 15-foot bronze sculpture of President Trump, finished with gold leaf, rises to 22 feet once its pedestal is included. Ohio-based sculptor Alan Cottrill said the work cost about $360,000.

The statue, nicknamed the“Don Colossus,” was unveiled earlier this month and quickly became a magnet for competing interpretations. Pastor Mark Burns, who helped bring the piece to the golf course, defended it at the unveiling ceremony on Wednesday, saying it was“not a golden calf” but“a celebration of life.” He later expanded on that defense, saying the sculpture represents“the miracle of God” and that it is“blasphemy” to compare it with the biblical image.

The project's reported origins are as unusual as its appearance. According to reports, the statue was commissioned by a group of cryptocurrency investors to promote the $PATRIOT meme coin. Its installation was delayed by a payment dispute, with Cottrill saying the investors failed to pay the $90,000 balance on time.

That combination of politics, religion, and speculative finance gives the sculpture a distinctly 21st-century profile. It is not simply a portrait of a president, but a public object designed to operate in several registers at once: devotional, promotional, and theatrical.

For Trump's Miami property, the result is a work that turns a golf course into a stage for larger cultural arguments. The statue's scale ensures it will be seen as much as discussed, and its backstory suggests that in today's art-adjacent public sphere, even a monument can arrive with a marketing campaign attached.

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