Meme coin marketing new tactic: investing $300,000 to create a gilded statue of Donald Trump

Cryptocurrency investors spent $300,000 to create a 15-foot-tall gilded Trump statue to promote PATRIOT Meme Coin. However, the token’s price plummeted, and internal disputes continued, causing this gold rush project to descend into chaos. This article is based on a report by David Yaffe-Bellany from The New York Times, compiled, translated, and written by Foresight News.
(Background recap: Trump stated he does not want the US government to shut down: he will “work across party lines” to prevent a shutdown, but the market does not buy it)
(Additional background: The prediction market signals a “detonation warning”: the probability of a US government shutdown has sharply dropped to 47%)

This President Trump statue is called “Don Colossus.” It stands 15 feet tall, placed on a base weighing 7,000 pounds, with an overall height comparable to a two-story building. The giant statue is cast in bronze and coated with a thick layer of gold leaf. (Note: Don Colossus literally translates to “Giant Trump,” indicating Trump is a giant.)

For over a year, this gilded statue has been at the core of one of the most bizarre gold rush projects of the Trump era. A group of cryptocurrency investors invested $300,000 to commission a sculptor to create this statue as a tribute to Trump, who openly supports cryptocurrencies.

Subsequently, they used this statue to boost a Meme coin called PATRIOT.

Now, unexpectedly, the plan seems to be coming to fruition. Last month, a concrete and stainless steel base was completed at Trump’s golf resort in Doral, Florida. According to records reviewed by The New York Times, one of the project organizers and Trump’s friend, Mark Burns, told collaborators that the president plans to attend the statue’s unveiling ceremony locally.

“This statue looks amazing,” Trump wrote in a letter to Burns last December.

Alan Cottrill inspecting his designed gilded Trump statue in Zanesville, Ohio

Almost everyone in the crypto world has tried to profit from Trump’s presidency: either by making business deals with his family or seeking regulatory looseness from his administration. But few have been as bold as supporters of PATRIOT.

Meme coins are a type of cryptocurrency that serve little purpose beyond speculation, often built around viral internet jokes or celebrity images, with their value entirely dependent on how much internet fans are willing to pay. The key to creating a Meme coin is generating enough online buzz to convince potential buyers that its price will keep rising.

Building a giant statue is an expensive social media stunt, but it’s also a potential profit-making scheme. According to one organizer, investors who funded the statue received large amounts of the token, which sometimes saw explosive price surges. For months, supporters of “Don Colossus” posted updates on the statue’s progress on X (formerly Twitter), forming alliances with the “Make America Great Again” camp, aiming for a marketing victory: to have the statue installed in Trump’s official enterprise.

By late 2024, the PATRIOT Meme Coin was officially launched, coinciding with Trump’s promise to make the US the “global crypto capital,” causing the token’s price to soar. During an event in Washington on the weekend of the president’s inauguration, supporters presented a bronze mini statue to Trump’s former advisor Steve Bannon and interacted with other conservatives.

But repeated delays and internal conflicts cast a shadow over this gold rush, revealing the turbulence in the Meme coin market: rife with scams, where investors often end up losing everything. Last year, PATRIOT’s price collapsed nearly to zero. To rush the completion of the statue and boost the token, investors clashed with Ohio-based sculptor Alan Cottrill.

In text messages reviewed by The New York Times, Cottrill stated that investors still owed him $75,000 for intellectual property rights related to the statue.

“You’re exploiting my copyrighted statue image to promote your token!” he wrote in a message to one supporter last month.

“Yeah, haha, we planned this from day one,” replied Ashley Sansalone. Sansalone is a crypto developer involved in PATRIOT and another token project called Elon GOAT.

Alan Cottrill’s commissioned sculpture of Elon Musk

Sansalone said in a statement that the full payment to Cottrill would be made before the statue’s unveiling. “In any commercial agreement, a portion is withheld until the finished product is delivered,” he said.

But it’s still unclear when the statue will be officially displayed.

This Monday, after The New York Times inquired about PATRIOT with the White House and Trump Group, Trump’s son Eric Trump posted a statement on X.

“We appreciate everyone’s support and enthusiasm,” he said, “but to be clear, we are not involved in any way with this token.”

Creating “Don Colossus”

The plan to create “Don Colossus” originated in a group chat on the messaging app Telegram. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts often exchange investment tips and promote tokens on this platform. It was July 2024, shortly after Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, when he raised his fist with a determined expression.

Sansalone wanted to turn this rebellious image into the core visual of a Meme coin. He collaborated with right-wing activist Dustin Stockton, and well-connected crypto investor Brock Pierce also joined, despite Pierce’s history of legal and financial troubles.

Soon after a bullet grazed Trump’s ear, Sansalone contacted 73-year-old Cottrill, whose bronze statue of Edison is displayed in the U.S. Capitol. Over the years, Cottrill has sculpted statues of a dozen U.S. presidents, including 10-foot-high memorials of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

Cottrill in a room filled with sculptures

This group of crypto investors hoped Trump’s statue would be taller than previous works and requested some visual modifications.

“My initial sculpture was very realistic,” Cottrill said in an interview last month. “Those in the crypto circle asked me to trim some of the excess flesh around his neck and make him a bit slimmer.”

By the time Trump took office, Cottrill had completed the sculpture. The bronze giant was not yet gilded but was the tallest of all his works. In December last year, Trump shared a report from Briebart News about the project, which said Stockton was communicating with the presidential inauguration committee about holding an unveiling during inauguration weekend.

The timing of this repost was perfect: it was shortly after PATRIOT was launched.

The official website states: “A cryptocurrency for the people, this is an indelible statue that no one can erase.”

But the project soon faced two major setbacks. Cold weather in Washington caused logistical issues, forcing the statue unveiling to be postponed; and just before the inauguration, Trump launched his own Meme coin, TRUMP.

While crypto traders scrambled to buy the official token, Stockton and Pierce held an “Patriot Award” event at the National Press Club in Washington, distributing mini models of the statue.

“The atmosphere was instantly cold because Trump’s token suddenly skyrocketed,” Cottrill said.

By the end of January, the price of PATRIOT had plummeted over 90%.

“A Piece of Land”

Despite these setbacks, the crypto investors continued their marketing efforts. In February last year, notorious former Congressman George Santos appeared on Fox News showcasing a mini Trump statue, explicitly mentioning PATRIOT token.

A small gilded Trump statue with fist raised, surrounded by several dark statues of the same style

Santos reposted this video on X, claiming: “This kind of exposure, you can’t buy it with money!” In a brief phone interview, Santos said, “I was paid to advertise it, and I’ve always been straightforward about that.”

The investors also tried to recruit another influential ally: Burns. This well-known pastor is a Trump confidant and sometimes called the president’s informal “spiritual advisor.”

After Pierce introduced him to the project team, Burns began participating in the statue work. He quickly became a key figure in pushing for the project’s restart, proposing to gild the bronze statue with gold leaf.

“The president just asked me for photos of the statue after it was gilded,” Burns wrote in a message to collaborators last November.

Trump’s wish was finally fulfilled. Sansalone told the team that he consulted a gold leaf supplier in New York that had previously decorated Trump Tower. Cottrill also shared photos of the latest finished statue.

“It’s dazzling, exquisite,” Sansalone replied.

“Wow… I’ll send this to the president,” Burns said.

Apparently, Trump was moved by the statue. Last month, Cottrill traveled to Florida and completed the installation of the 7,000-pound base at Trump’s Doral golf resort. Stockton boasted on social media that it was a “treasured land.”

In a text message to collaborators in January, Burns said that White House schedulers are “actively working to finalize” the date for the president’s attendance at the official unveiling.

Trump National Doral Golf Club, Florida

This should have been Cottrill’s moment to shine, but he said he’s had enough of the crypto investors behind it.

Cottrill stated that until fall 2024, he only recently discovered that these crypto investors were using his artwork to promote a digital currency, which he believes infringes on his intellectual property rights.

In the end, he reached an agreement with the investors: they would pay him $150,000 for the statue’s licensing rights. But he claims he has yet to receive the remaining balance, and with other unpaid fees, they still owe him about $90,000 in total.

Crypto investors demanded the Trump statue be tall enough and requested some visual modifications

“In my view, they never bought the rights, and now they’re using it illegally,” he said. “Unless all debts are settled, this statue will never leave my foundry.”

But the project organizers claim they haven’t made much money from it.

Burns said he has never asked for or received any compensation. Stockton told an interviewer that PATRIOT is just a funding tool to support “all matters related to the statue.”

“I haven’t seen anyone get rich off this,” Stockton said.

A spokesperson for the Trump Group, Kimberly Benza, stated that the company only learned about this Meme coin after The New York Times inquired this week. She did not respond to questions about whether the unveiling will proceed as scheduled.

The farce has not stopped the project’s promotion on social media. An account associated with the token recently posted photos of the Doral statue’s base and pinned a detailed message on how to buy the Meme coin.

“This dream still lives,” Sansalone and Burns said during a live stream on January 16.

Besides the giant statue, the team also hopes to gift Trump a miniature gilded version of the same statue. “We want to have a collectible in the Oval Office,” Sansalone said.