Restrooms are notoriously difficult to find on the National Mall, but a newly installed toilet has appeared in one of its most prominent locations.
Unfortunately for tourists looking for a place to go, the one that showed up Monday morning on the promenade in front of the Lincoln Memorial is inoperable.
This toilet, spray-painted gold and set on a faux-marble pedestal, is the latest in a series of protest artworks and installations taking aim at President Donald Trump and his administration. A plaque on each side of the structure reads: A Throne Fit for a King.
The message on the plaque continues: “In a time of unprecedented division, escalating conflict and economic turmoil, President Trump focused on what really mattered: Remodeling the Lincoln Bathroom in the White House. This, his crowning achievement is a bold reminder that the president isn’t just a bussinessman, he’s taking care of business. It stands as a tribute to an unwavering visionary who looked down, saw a problem, and painted it gold.”
In October, Trump announced that he had renovated the Lincoln Bathroom, replacing the 1940s-era art deco style with gold fixtures and “black and white polished Statuary marble.”
In the toilet installation outside the Lincoln Memorial, a roll of toilet paper with the words Secret Handshake printed on each sheet rested on a holder next to the toilet. Secret Handshake is the name of a guerrilla art group that has installed about a dozen statues or works on the National Mall over the past 16 months that have criticized Trump and his followers. Earlier this month, the art collective installed a statue depicting the president embracing the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a reenactment of a famous scene from the movie “Titanic.” In September, the group installed a spray-painted bronze statue titled “Best Friends Forever” that depicted Trump and Epstein holding hands, each with a an arm and a leg raised behind them in a skipping pose.
The people behind the group, whose real identities are unknown to The Washington Post, use a go-between to obtain permits for the installations from the National Park Service. In a phone interview with The Post on Monday, one of the group’s members said they don’t want their identity revealed, “because it’s not about us. It’s about the kind of fun, intrigue and mystery of these things.”
“Things are dark right now and feel hopeless in a lot of ways,” he said. “There’s a lightheartedness to this that could be a respite from the darkness. Of course, there’s a lot of imagery around the idea that this guy is king and a supreme ruler that comes from him directly, so the idea of this throne does play into it.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest artwork.
As a light rain fell Monday morning, small crowds of tourists gathered around the pop-up pooper on the west end of the Mall, just a short walk from the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace and the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Some visitors laughed, others grimaced, a few didn’t know what to make of it.
Don and Tammy Kipp, in town from Upstate New York to see the cherry blossoms, voted for Trump and thought it was in bad taste to display the toilet on the Mall. “I don’t think it belongs here,” Tammy Kipp said. “People shouldn’t go home from visiting the capital and this is all they think about.”
Don Kipp wasn’t sure how the president would react. “I think he’s doing a good job, but he’s getting a little out of hand lately,” the visitor said. “He takes things personally, and he gets petty.”
Many of the visitors Monday morning were fans of the artwork.
“I think it’s amazing,” said Jeff Cain, 52, who was in town from Michigan. “We’re surrounded by all of these monuments and tributes to people who were critical to the foundation of this country. And this juxtaposes perfectly with our current administration, which is very self-serving.”
Forest Caveney, 46 and his wife, Angela, 52, tourists from the Woodlands, Texas, were out for a morning stroll when they came upon the faux tribute. They were impressed.
“When I saw the golden toilet, I immediately thought of Trump,” Angela Caveney said. Her husband agreed. “With all of the Mar-a-Lago-ing of the White House going on and everything covered in gold, this is a good representation of that.”
Musa Khan, 19, came from Prince George’s County, Maryland, with a friend. Khan said the artwork exemplified American values of free speech. “It’s such a part of American history to go out and protest and use your First Amendment rights,” he said. “I’m so proud of whoever did this.”
As more tourists showed up, many walked up the three steps to sit on the throne and have their picture taken. The creators, anticipating this interaction, made sure that the toilet lid is sealed shut. But visitors are welcome to take a sheet of the toilet paper with them.
“We’ve got tons of rolls,” one of the artists told The Post.
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