Culture

Let Trump Keep Building Monuments to Himself

The president’s penchant for gilded statues and self-glorification might at least help clarify the nature of his leadership.

First published in The Atlantic on February 8, 2026.

by Gal Beckerman, The Atlantic

February 12, 2026 | reading time: 6 Min.

Donald Trump’s supporters really need to think bigger. A 15-foot-tall golden sculpture of the president—“Don Colossus” to friends—has recently been completed and will likely soon stand triumphantly, his fist in the air, atop a 7,000-pound pedestal that has already been installed at Trump’s Miami golf club. By the standards of leader worship, it might be too modest—Lilliputian when compared with the 40-foot-tall shining effigy that Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov built for himself in the late 1990s. That statue bestrode a 246-foot monument in the middle of Ashgabat and—get this—rotated 360 degrees daily so that it was always facing the sun.