San Francisco

‘We Want to Show the World What a Fraud He Is': SF Supervisor Wants to Save Naked Donald Trump Statue

The naked Donald Trump statue that went up in the Castro Thursday morning didn’t stay up too long. But it may find another home in the city.

The San Francisco Department of Public Works removed the life-size flesh-toned clay statue early Friday and turned it over to the San Francisco Police Department on possible vandalism charges.

According to a public works spokesperson, the agency removed the political art, entitled "The Emperor Has No Balls," shortly after 3 a.m. because it was put up without a permit. The epoxy solution used to erect the statue damaged the sidewalk, and it cost about $4,000 to be taken down, public works officials said.

Public works crews could be seen dragging the statue away from the intersection of Market and Castro, right across the street from the iconic Twin Peaks Tavern, and wheeling it away in the early morning darkness.

The statue is currently in possession of the Mission District police station, according to a sergeant there.

"There were people who found it very entertaining, but it was creating a traffic hazard, it was a public safety issue," said SFPD Officer Carlos Manfredi.

For San Francisco Supervisor Scott Weiner, the statue is more than entertainment — it's political art. Weiner wants to get the Trump statue out of custody and find a home for it, such as Lefty O'Doul's, an Irish sports bar in Union Square.

"We want to show the world what a fraud he is," Weiner said at a press conference Friday morning.

He said he wants to save the statue so San Francisco can be reminded of Trump's "ridiculousness through the elections." 

"We're getting a dream team of lawyers together to get him out on habeas corpus," a spokesperson for the bar said. "We don't know when we will get our hands on him."

Naked Trump statues popped up around the country Thursday, including San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and Seattle, sparking the hashtag #NakedTrump, which competed with the other viral hashtag of the day — #LochMess.

A collective named Indecline was the mastermind behind the public art installation. 

"Everyone needs to understand that America is a lot better than Donald Trump, and he should have never made it this far in the first place," an Indecline spokesperson told NBC Bay Area.

According to the spokesperson, San Francisco's statue remained untouched longest compared to other cities where the naked figurines were erected.

"We're really happy to hear they want to put it in an establishment," he said.

By contrast, Jason Clark, chairman of the San Francisco Republican Party, believes a naked statue of the Republican presidential nominee has no place in the city.

"It's tasteless, it's vile, and in San Francisco, I think we're a little more classy than that," he said.

Indecline wanted to make a political statement by making sure that the statues were sizable except for a certain body part that appeared minuscule.

In what could be called one of the highlights of his campaign, Trump didn't hold back anything back in March when he attempted to assure the American people that despite what Marco Rubio had suggested, there was nothing wrong with his hands.

"Look at those hands, are they small hands?" he said. "And, he referred to my hands — 'If they're small, something else must be small.' I guarantee you there's no problem. I guarantee."

Indecline posted a video of how the statue was made from clay, resin and rebar, which featured a soundtrack peppered with Trump's voice saying, "You want some?" "The American dream is dead" and "I will build a great wall."

Ginger, the Cleveland-based artist who created the statues designs monsters for haunted houses and horror movies. "Trump is just yet another monster, so it was absolutely in my wheelhouse to be able to create these monstrosities," he told the Washington Post.

The Twitterverse went crazy on Thursday, with tweets both commending and criticizing the artwork. A lot of people said they found the statue offensive. Trump, who is usually very vocal on Twitter, has yet to say anything.

"Many people are saying that @realdonaldtrump is going to sue whoever put these statues up. As proof he has to strip," one tweet joked.

A tweet from ABC7 News in New York quoted the New York parks department as saying: "NYC Parks stands firmly against any unpermitted erection in city parks, no matter how small."

Christie Smith and Shawb Murphy contributed to this article.

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