Tourists expecting solemn monuments on the National Mall this week got something a little more… pointed. An 8-foot-tall golden sculpture titled “Dictator Approved” now sits just off Third Street NW. It shows a Trump-like thumbs-up smashing down on the seafoam crown of the Statue of Liberty—a visual gut punch that needs no curator.
The anonymous artists behind the viral “poop on Pelosi’s desk” statue from last fall are suspected to be back at it. Their new piece is a response to Donald Trump’s June 14 military parade, which critics say mimicked the authoritarian aesthetics of North Korea, Russia, and China.
And they’re not exactly subtle about it.
“Dictator Approved”: The Trump-Inspired Sculpture That Calls Out Authoritarian Cosigns
The base of the statue is wrapped in engraved quotes from some of the world’s most notorious strongmen—each fawning over Donald Trump. Putin calls him “a very bright and talented man.” Bolsonaro speaks of “shared values.” Kim Jong Un’s flowery praise reads like fanfiction. Viktor Orban simply says Trump is “the most respected, the most feared.”
It’s all there, cast in stone: a chorus of authoritarian approval echoing around the man who once claimed he’d stay in office beyond two terms “just for fun.”
The sculpture doesn’t need an artist’s name. The message is loud enough.
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“If they were in a dictatorship…”
The White House (yes, this White House) responded to the artwork with something between shade and self-own.
“If these Democrat activists were living in a dictatorship,” said Trump administration spokesperson Abigail Jackson, “their eye-sore of a sculpture wouldn’t be sitting on the National Mall right now.”
Right. And yet here it is, in plain view of Congress, squashing Lady Liberty under a gilded hand.
The permit, filed by someone named Mary Harris, allows the statue to remain until June 22. Like its predecessor, the poop statue, no artist or collective has claimed responsibility. One anonymous source told the Washington Post last year he was involved in the previous pieces—but denied responsibility for this one. Whether that’s true or just plausible deniability is unclear.
Dissent disguised as public art
Reactions from passersby ranged from admiration to strategic silence. A tourist from Australia compared it to Animal Farm. A woman from D.C. took selfies with her dog in front of it, raincoat and all. One 20-something visitor said the quotes were the part that hit hardest:
“If all these authoritarian politicians approve of our president… maybe people will see a pattern.”
Maybe they will. Or maybe they’ll just see a big gold thumbs-up and keep walking.
But in a political era increasingly allergic to subtlety, the statue doesn’t whisper. It points, presses, and flattens. Which is exactly what it’s supposed to do.
See also: King of Flops: Trump Threw Himself a Military Parade—and Got Ratioed by the Weather and the Internet
