The fate of a fifteen-foot-tall statue of Donald Trump made of bronze and finished with gold leaf is hanging in the balance as the first family quietly distances itself from the fawning crypto venture behind it.
Dubbed “Don Colossus,” the $300,000 statue was bankrolled by cryptocurrency investors hoping to generate buzz for a new memecoin—a type of cryptocurrency based on celebrities and trends that serve little use other than to profit from hype—called Patriot, The New York Times reported. The president is known to warmly receive gold and tributes to himself, and backers of the venture hoped to unveil the statue on one of his many golf courses.
For months, investors shared photos charting the statue’s construction, along with images suggesting a pedestal was being installed at Trump National Doral in Miami.
“The team at Trump Doral will be busy cladding the pedestal, installing a ton of up/down lighting and landscaping in the coming days,” an early January X post from Patriot read. “What @realDonaldTrump has in store for the $PATRIOT community and his inner circle for this unveiling will surely be spectacular!”
That anticipation, however, came to a screeching halt on Monday, when Eric Trump publicly disavowed the project.
“The Trump Organization has no association of any kind with the Patriot Token or meme coin ($PATRIOT) referenced below,” he wrote on X in reply to a Jan. 9 Patriot post. “We appreciate the support and enthusiasm, but we want to be crystal clear—we are not involved in this coin.”
The president’s second son’s outright rejection of “Don Colossus” marked a sharp departure from his father’s earlier enthusiasm.
“It LOOKS FANTASTIC,” Trump, 79, wrote to Pastor Mark Burns—one of the initiative’s leading figures—according to The Times.
The family’s sudden retreat may stem from the president’s launch of a competing memecoin, $TRUMP, just two weeks before he was sworn in for his second term. It may also reflect turmoil among the investors themselves after the statue failed to deliver the financial windfall they anticipated, The Times reported.
The Trumps, meanwhile, have pulled in at least $867 million from cryptocurrency ventures—a figure that could be significantly higher. Eric Trump has acknowledged that the family’s crypto earnings likely exceed public estimates, according to an interview with the Financial Times.
Those gains account for the largest share of the estimated $1.4 billion Trump and his family have raked in since he returned to office a year ago, newly disclosed figures show—raising fresh questions about conflicts of interest and the increasingly blurred line between the presidency and personal profit.
At the same time, not all is well in Trump’s cryptoworld. The president’s memecoin has lost nearly all of its value from its peak a year ago. When the president’s $TRUMP launched last Jan. 20, just ahead of Trump’s return to the White House, it surged $1.20 to a high of $75.35, generating a market value of billions. However, 12 months later, it is now trading at $4.86, a 94 percent drop, according to The Financial Times.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Trump Organization for comment. Talking to the Times, spokeswoman Kimberly Benza said the company was unaware of the memecoin until contacted by the Times, claiming it had “no knowledge” of it.
In a reply to Eric on X, Dustin Stockton, a right-wing activist involved in the statue project, wrote: “Thank you Eric, Frustrating that fake news forced this to be clarified because the $PATRIOT statue and token were community driven initiatives to show our support and gratitude for your Dad and family.” He added, “Looking forward to unveiling the big beautiful statue.”
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