Donald Trump's wooden 'statue of liberty' that showed him as two-faced 'vampire' burnt to the ground
Suspected vandals in Slovenia -- home to Melania Trump -- torched a wooden statue that mocked her husband President Donald Trump as a two-faced "vampire".
Originally erected last year in the small village of Selo, the 26-foot-high construction was meant to be a criticism of populist politics. Tomaz Schlegl, its creator, named it the "statue of liberty", according to AFP.
The statue showed Trump with his trademark golden hairdo, wearing a blue suit and his iconic red tie. While his right arm was raised high resembling America's Statue of Liberty, a mechanism inside the statue opened its red-painted mouth to reveal a set of sharp, jagged teeth, Fox News reports.
“Like all populists, the statue has two faces,” Schlegl said while uncovering the statue last August. “One is humane and nice, the other is that of a vampire.”
A group of local young people, who helped the artist in constructing the structure, said the statue was meant to be "a provocation because the world is full of populism," according to the Independent. A former member of the Slovenian parliament and author who has written about Melania Trump, Igor Omerza, said days after the statue was unveiled that it could be interpreted in varied ways — either the raised hand of Lady Liberty or the iron fist of a populist dictator.
However, the construction had left several villagers unhappy. The backlash resulted in the statue being moved to a nearby village Moravče after residents of Selo promised to burn it to the ground on Halloween in October last year.
Mayor of Moravče Milan Balazic said unknown arsonists had burned down the construction and that authorities were still looking for the suspects.
According to Balazic, the torching of the statue was "a symbol of intolerance toward artistic projects in our society".
Total Slovenia News reported how the structure had previously been defaced with a Hitler mustache just days after it was unveiled in Moravče.
That said, the U.S. president is not the only one in his family to have their likeness immortalized in Slovenia.
Last June, a life-size sculpture of First Lady Melania Trump, born Melanija Knavs, was carved out of the trunk of a linden tree in her hometown of Sevnica. That construction too received a mixed reaction from locals, with some likening the statue to a "scarecrow."
