A new statue of President Donald Trump has been unveiled in South Dakota, the latest edition to the area’s City of Presidents art project.
“I knew it would be a controversial piece,” the sculptor, Rapid City native Jim Maher, told News Center 1. “I had friends that told me it would ruin my career. I had other friends tell me that it’d be the greatest thing I’d ever done. I think the truth is probably somewhere in the middle of that.”
Why It Matters
The statue is the latest addition to the city’s 25-year-old tourist project, aimed at offering an extra attraction for those visiting South Dakota by capturing the life-size likeness of every U.S. president.
However, it is also the latest in a series of effigies of the current president, many of which have been commissioned by admirers to pay tribute to Trump and his administration.
Courtesy of Visit Rapid City
What To Know
The statue was unveiled before an audience at Elks Theater in downtown Rapid City on Saturday. The statue of Trump, which captures the president mid-speech and with his hand raised in a distinctive gesture, was commissioned following the end of his first term in 2021 and completed prior to his victory in the 2024 presidential election.
It forms part of Rapid City’s City of Presidents, a privately funded art project launched in 2000 and run by the city’s tourism board, Visit Rapid City. With the addition of Trump’s statue, all presidents through number 45 are now on display in downtown Rapid City.
Maher has completed several other sculptures for the project, including Abraham Lincoln, Gerald Ford, Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, Ronald Reagan, Grover Cleveland, Lyndon B. Johnson, George W. Bush, Andrew Jackson, Franklin Pierce, Harry S. Truman and James Buchanan.
Protestors gathered outside Elks Theater as the new statue was unveiled, according to The Mirror US. Alongside the sculptor, other guests involved in the ceremony included Rapid City Mayor Jason Salamun, South Dakota GOP Representative Dusty Johnson and Richard Purdue, the son of City of Presidents founder Don Purdue.
Adam Fondre/Rapid City Journal via AP
What People Are Saying
Ally Formanek, interim CEO for Visit Rapid City, told Newsweek: “The statue of President Trump is the newest addition to the City of Presidents. The addition of this statue supports the trail’s mission of honoring each U.S. president, sharing the diverse legacies of our country’s leadership along the way.”
Sculptor Jim Maher, as quoted by Rapid City Journal, said: “I have no doubt that Trump will be one of the more consequential figures in American history. What those consequences are have yet to be determined.”
“I have to say, if I started again today, I might choose differently,” Maher added. “The second administration seems to have kind of a new dynamic that wasn’t really present in the first. It seemed like the first term was a lot more talk and tweets. Now things are really moving.”
What Happens Next?
Trump’s statue will be displayed at the Rapid City Visitor Center for the duration of the Summer season. A representative of Visit Rapid City told Newsweek that it will then be placed outside to join the rest of the presidential statues in downtown Rapid City.
A statue of former President Joe Biden has already been commissioned, which Newsweek was told will also be made by Maher.
