The Times, November 2018
Donald Trump’s lifelong love of cheeseburgers has inspired a British artist to create what may become one of the least flattering statues of an American president to be erected in Britain.
The project started as a solid silver, gold-plated sculpture of Trump riding a bullock on top of a giant burger.
The British businessman who paid £30,000 for that 7in tall piece — Trump Burger I, by Alexander de Cadenet — now intends to display a life-size version in the “central square” of a northern British city where his company is working on a property development.
De Cadenet, 44, said last week he would “build a life-size statue of Trump. It will go up on a plinth in a major British city in a space on council land.”
The businessman has applied for planning permission, but declined to name the city until he has it.
De Cadenet said the work “can obviously be seen as a satirical piece attacking Trump’s greed and wealth and power”.
He added, however, that Trump was “in conquistador mode because he is a man of action”. Crammed between the buns of his sculpture are a jumble of vehicles, an aircraft and a golden skull.
The buyer said: “My American friends are embarrassed by [Trump], but . . . I find him constantly amusing. The statue will say something about the personality of our time. The art is a little bit dark.”