A tombstone bearing the name of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who was nearly assassinated twice, was displayed in a New York City art gallery ahead of the 2024 election.
Brooklyn-based artist Brian Andrew Whiteley revived his 500-pound anti-Trump art project, the “Legacy Stone,” at the Satellite Gallery in Manhattan,” the New York Post reported.
Trump tombstone art project on display in NYC following assassination attempts https://t.co/NtXELPVdau pic.twitter.com/h6E6hxBHil
— New York Post (@nypost) October 19, 2024
The phrase “Made America Hate Again” was chiseled toward the bottom of the tombstone. Trump’s birth year, 1946, was listed, but no death year has been included, photos of Whiteley’s creation show.
Celebratory leftists danced at the sight of Trump’s tombstone, the artist told the outlet.
“There’s been very happy people, celebratory people,” Whiteley said. “We just have people screaming, yes, yes, yes, dancing, taking photos of groups of people at a time with the tombstone, celebrating.”
Made from Vermont granite, the Trump tombstone sat beside heart-shaped flowers colored like the American flag, images show.
Originally created in May 2016, when Trump first ran for president, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) confiscated Whitley’s sculpture after a slew of concerned callers reached out to the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service, according to the outlet. The artist initially placed the stone in the Sheep Meadow in Central Park before law enforcement removed it, held it in a storage locker and returned it four months later.
This Donald Trump tombstone was found in Central Park 👀 pic.twitter.com/Q5kO73oC2i
— WORLDSTARHIPHOP (@WORLDSTAR) March 28, 2016
Whitley claimed his Trump tombstone was not a call to violence and had more to do with the former president’s legacy. (RELATED: ‘As I Was Saying …’: Donald Trump Resumes Butler Rally Almost Three Months After Assassination Attempt)
“Honestly, it was about Trump and his ego … I felt like this was a way to foreshadow his own legacy, kind of like a Dickens’ Christmas Story, foreshadowing where his legacy could be,” Whiteley said.
However, Trump supporters and allies did not appreciate the artist’s morbid mockup.
“This so-called artist thinks this stunt is edgy, but it’s not. Edgy would be going to Iran with art to promote women’s rights at the doorstep of the Ayatollah. Instead, he’s displaying this tombstone after two assassination attempts on President Trump on top of the ongoing Iranian plots to kill him. This behavior is dangerous,” Republican Florida Rep. Mike Walz said of the exhibit.
Despite the attempts on Trump’s life, Whitley said, “I think we should kick his ass at the ballot box.”
