In order to protest over the candidature of Donald Trump for the upcoming US presidential elections, an art group has installed his life-size naked statues across five American cities.
The statues were put up in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Cleveland yesterday by the group called 'Indecline', which has lashed out at Trump in past.
Amused and surprised passers-by flocked to take pictures with the statue showing a stern-faced Trump with trademark flock of bright yellow hair and hands folded over a bulging belly.
A report in NBC News quoted a statement by the group as saying that the hope behind putting up the statues is that Trump "is never installed in the most powerful political and military position in the world".
"It is through these sculptures that we leave behind the physical and metaphorical embodiment of the ghastly soul of one of America's most infamous and reviled politicians," the group said in a statement.
A statue in Manhattan's Union Square quickly drew the attention of people before it was removed by the city's parks department. While several people took pictures with the statue, others shouted anti-Trump slogans.
The New York City Parks Department told the report, "NYC Parks stands firmly against any unpermitted erection in city parks, no matter how small".
Trump's campaign declined to comment on the statues. The group said statues on the West Coast were still in place. In San Francisco, onlookers stopped to take photos with the statue in the gay neighbourhood of the Castro District, according to the report.
The statues have been designed by sculptor Joshua Monroe, also known as Ginger, who was once a Trump supporter.
Ginger told Pix11News that he, at one point, "believed" in Trump but disapproved of him when he mocked a New York Times reporter's muscular disorder during a campaign speech in November last year.
(With PTI inputs)
