Two new statues in D.C. honor white nationalists — well, sort of
The anonymous pop up art feels satirical — but who’s to say?
The poop on Pelosi’s desk, across from the Capitol. Courtesy of Getty Images
By Mira Fox October 30, 2024
Two new bronze statues have popped up next to the National Mall in D.C., hoping to join the ranks of so many grand, iconic American monuments. One is a shiny dollop of poop, placed atop a bronze replica of Nancy Pelosi’s desk. The other is a tiki torch.
Both have plaques, like any good art piece, giving their name and some interpretive details; the Pelosi desk is titled The Resolute Desk. The torch is called The Donald J. Trump Enduring Flame.
According to their labels, The Resolute Desk commemorates the “brave men and women” who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 to “to loot, urinate and defecate throughout those hallowed halls in order to overturn an election.” Enduring Flame, meanwhile, lauds Trump’s defense of the neo-Nazis who marched on Charlottesville, VA in 2017’s Unite The Right rally.
“While many have called them white supremacists and neo-Nazis, President Trump’s voice rang out above the rest to remind all that they were ‘treated absolutely unfairly,’” the sign installed on the tiki torch’s plinth declares.
The statues received permits by the National Park Service, which administers the Mall. But they’re only temporary installations, due to be removed on Halloween. And they don’t actually celebrate Pelosi, Trump or poop; they’re satirical. At least that’s my read, thanks to the glistening feces.
On the other hand, though, there are certainly people who do love Trump for his defense of white nationalists — the white nationalists themselves, for one. They do see Jan. 6 as a bold reclaiming of the government by the people, for the people.
No one has exactly claimed the statues, though an art collective called Civic Crafted registered for the permits. That makes it hard to say what their intended message is exactly, though it’s clear enough that the statues are a critique of the dangers of a second Trump presidency in advance of the election.
The admittedly very slight mystery about the statues’ meaning — does no one understand irony? — is perhaps a contributing factor to their near-immediate defacement. The tiki torch was knocked over, broken along its base. And someone stole the name plate off of Pelosi’s model desk. It’s hard to guess who exactly did that — someone who takes offense at Jan. 6 being memorialized, or someone who just hates Nancy Pelosi? Was the tiki torch knocked over by someone who hated the march, or hated the irony of the tribute to it?
But as goofy any statue involving bronze poop may seem, both statues pose a startling alternate future. Imagine a U.S. that is a proudly white nation, where a march chanting “the Jews will not replace us” was given a heroic statue.
Given the still-standing statues commemorating the heroism of Confederate leaders around the country, and the statues of Nazi collaborators around the world, it’s not hard to imagine.
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