Exclusive: A Two-Story Trump Statue Drawing on His Iconic Defiance Post-Assassination Attempt Is Under Construction
President-elect Donald Trump is being honored with a larger-than-life two-story tall bronze statue, which is being shaped to capture his iconic defiance in the wake of the assassination attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania, last July.
Breitbart News has obtained exclusive photos of the statue, which is still under construction. Backers behind the project hope to unveil the finished product at Trump’s inauguration.
An artist in Alan Cottrill’s studio looks up at the uncompleted Trump statue. (Photo: Dustin Stockton)
An artist works on a clay mold of Trump. (Photo: Dustin Stockton)
Crypto investors with the project $PATRIOT commissioned Ohio artist Alan Cottrill to create the bronze statue after Trump was nearly assassinated in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. Trump’s pro-crypto policies also helped motivate backers to support the project, Breitbart News has learned.
Cottrill is working to capture Trump’s courage and defiance immediately after being shot. In iconic fashion, Trump rose with a bloodied face and pumped his fist as he repeatedly shouted, “Fight!” to his supporters before U.S. Secret Service agents rushed him off stage.
WATCH: Defiant: Bloodied Trump Pumps Fist to Crowd After Possible Shooting at Rally
Cottrill, who also created the Thomas Edison statue in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol, said in a statement shared with Breitbart News that this is the largest figure he has ever set out to create.
“I’ve sculpted and cast 400 life size or larger bronze statues across America and the Patriot Statue is our largest single figure to date,” he said.
Along with forging the Edison statue in 2016, Cottrill has also fashioned statues of several other presidents for universities and museums.
“The Patriot Statue of Donald J. Trump was our largest and most controversial undertaking, especially considering the scale and relevance of the event in Butler that took place,” Cottrill said.
Dustin Stockton, who helped lead the project, detailed the process that Cottrill is undertaking to forge the statue.
First, Cottrill sculpts a clay mold, and then individual bronze pieces are shaped based on the mold. The bronze pieces are then welded together and buffed out, creating the final product. Stockton estimated the statue would be completed by the New Year.
A clay mold of Trump’s face next to a mold for 26th President Teddy Roosevelt. (Photo: Dustin Stockton)
Another look at the clay mold. (Photo: Dustin Stockton)
“The statue had to be Trumpian. It had to be larger than life and over the top,” Stockton told Breitbart News.
He noted that he has spoken with several members of the Inaugural Committee about the logistics of unveiling it at the inauguration.
After the unveiling, the statue will embark on a year-long cross-country tour on the back of an 18-wheeler with a crane, Stockton said.
Once the tour is completed, those involved with the project hope the statue can be displayed in Butler before ultimately being placed forever at the eventual Trump Presidential Library.
“It’s been one hell of a ride the last decade; the PATRIOT project, statue, and tour is our way of claiming how these incredible times are remembered by history,” Stockton said.
Another angle of the yet-to-be-completed Trump statue. (Photo: Dustin Stockton)
It is unclear where exactly the statue would go in Butler and whether or not it could stand on the Butler Farm Show grounds where Trump was shot, but Stockton has spoken with some people in the county about potentially placing it there.
During a phone call with Breitbart News on Tuesday morning, Butler County Board of Commissioner Vice Chair Kim Geyer, who has been in contact with Stockton, noted that the grounds are private property, meaning it is up to the Farm Show grounds’ board of directors rather than the county to place it there.
When asked if there is a better home, at least a temporary one, for the statue than in Butler County, Geyer noted that it would be “an appropriate place.”
“Prior to it possibly going to the Trump Presidential Library in the future, I think it would be an appropriate place because we already have visitors who do come to frequent the location because they want to see where this event took place that occurred on July 13,” she said.
Breitbart News also asked Geyer, who sat behind Trump in the risers during the fateful July 13 rally, about the potential economic and touristic impact the statue could have on Butler and the surrounding area.
“I think people would travel to it to see it and it would have an impact on tourism because people coming out of town are going to frequent restaurants and hotels,” Geyer said. “We have so many other recreational and wonderful things to offer in Butler County. There’s a lot to see and do in Butler County, and we’re very proud of that, and I definitely think it would be a positive thing.”
“I think it would be a positive marker… a historical marker. This is something bad that happened here in our county that you can’t erase, but there’s been so much good that is coming out of something bad,” she continued, adding that the family of firefighter Corey Comperatore, who was killed by the gunman at Trump’s rally, may have “a different perspective, and that’s to be respected.”
Doug McLinko, chairman of the Bradford County Board of Commissioners, said he would make the four-and-a-half-hour drive west to see the statue if it were placed in Butler.
“I live on the other end of the state; I’d drive out to see it,” McLinko told Breitbart News on a phone call Monday night. “We drove out to his return trip to Butler, but I would drive out to see it. I’ll be honest with you: I get choked up with this guy because I look and see what he’s done for us.”
McLinko also forecasted that it would benefit Butler and the surrounding areas economically.
“I think it would be a hell of an economic boom in the area. I think it’s cool. You said, ‘Where else would it be better?’ The only place I can think of would be my front yard,” he joked.
In addition to the one towering piece, Cotrill is working on ten smaller, 18-inch-tall bronze statues of Trump in the same iconic pose. The ten pieces, valued at around $3,000, are “Patriot Awards,” which will be awarded to prominent figures who have been critical to the Make America Great Again movement.
One of the 18-inch bronze statues that will be given to key members of the MAGA movement. This illustrates what the larger statue will resemble once completed. (Photo: Dustin Stockton)
Stockton said they would hold a ceremony the days before the inauguration, during which the smaller bronze statues would be awarded to the yet-to-be-revealed patriots.
Stockton is a former Breitbart News reporter.
