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Statue Mocking Donald Trump Torched in Slovenia

Associated Press

   LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA - A wooden statue mocking U.S. President Donald
   Trump was burned to the ground Thursday in Slovenia, the birthplace of
   his wife Melania, authorities said.

   The nearly eight-meter (26-foot) high construction, erected last year
   in a village in northeast of Slovenia, showed Trump with his trademark
   hair style, blue suit, white shirt and a long red tie. His right arm--
   fist clenched-- was raised high like that of New York's Statue of
   Liberty.

   Slovenian police are looking for the arsonist.

   When triggered, a mechanism inside the statue opened a red-painted
   mouth and shark-like teeth used to appear.
   "Like all populists, the statue has two faces," its creator, Tomaz
   Schlegl, said when he unveiled the statue last August. "One is humane
   and nice, the other is that of a vampire."
   Although the construction quickly became a tourist attraction, some
   local villagers were unhappy with its appearance, pledging to torch it
   by Halloween, Oct. 31. It had to be moved to another village in the
   area.
   Milan Balazic, the mayor of Moravce where the statue ended up, said
   that unknown arsonists burned it.
   He said the torching of the statue "is symbol of intolerance toward
   artistic projects in our society."
   It's not the first time in Slovenia that a member of the Trump family
   has been carved in wood.

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