A golden Trump, the star Mexican statue of the Republican forum
A golden figure of former US President Donald Trump, made in Rosarito (Mexico), attracts attention in the largest Republican conference in the United States, which has been dominated by Trumpist ideas since its inception in the city of Orlando (Florida).
In shorts and sandals, the new star of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), made of fiberglass in Rosarito by American artist Tommy Zegan, looks like the Republican should walk for his Mar-a-Lago de Palm club Beach.
In this city of always summer Florida, Trump has taken refuge after losing last November's elections to Democrat Joe Biden.
The golden image of the Republican carrying the US Constitution in his right hand is just another reliable proof of the power of the former president in a Republican forum dominated by Trumpism, so much so that Donald Trump, Jr. came to suggest on Friday changing his name from CPAC to TPAC .
With the presence of conservatives fond of Trump and the absence of his detractors, including Senator Mitt Romney, who was a candidate for the Republican Party in 2012 when Democrat Barack Obama won re-election, the forum has been a parade of related papers with Trumpist complaints and policies.
In the three-day conference, in which the idea persists that the 2020 elections were stolen by Democrats, the 6-foot (1.8-meter) golden Trump, although he looks shorter than the real one, is the star of selfies for his followers.
It will be until tomorrow Sunday, when the real Trump will close the CPAC 2021, in which it will be his first public speech after completing his term on January 20 and in which criticism of the policies of the Democrat Biden is anticipated, which has reversed many of its guidelines, especially those relating to immigration.
The golden statue, described by some as "sinister", has also been the target of ridicule on social media that equates it with a "cult" or that recalls the passage of the worship of the golden calf from the Bible.
"It all comes down to this: Worshiping the golden defendant," conservative strategist Al Cárdenas noted on Twitter in reference to Trump, the only president to have faced two impeachments.
TRUMP'S PARTY
The statue, installed at the stand of the conservative nonprofit Look Ahead America, seems to reinforce the idea of his political ally, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who opened the conference on Friday with an invitation to put aside the "Republicans of yesteryear."
"We have really changed the status quo," said Mike Pompeo, Trump's former secretary of state, on Saturday.
The golden Trump looks like the counterpart of the popular “Baby Trump” balloon that flew through the skies of several cities during his presidency (2017-2021), alluding to his constant tantrums.
In addition to an apparent display of idolatry, for political analysts the statue is a perfect metaphor for the state of the Republican Party and conservatism in the US after the Trump presidency, which has left its political principles and embraces a figure surrounded by scandals and investigations.
His political allies, including Ted Cruz, one of the 43 Republican senators who acquitted him last February in the second impeachment of his presidency, in which he was accused of inciting the Trumpists to assault the Capitol on January 6, however, they consider it the future of the party.
"Donald Trump is not going anywhere," said an effusive Cruz in his speech this Friday in Orlando.
"Libertad," shouted at the end of his speech, Cruz, who is emerging as one of the possible candidates for the Republican primaries in 2024, along with fellow Hispanic Senator Marco Rubio.
The Cuban-American from Florida, another speaker at the conference, nevertheless said this Saturday on his Twitter that due to "an unexpected family matter" he was not going to be able to attend the CPAC.
