It may be gone, but you can’t un-see it.
City Parks Department workers removed a naked statue of Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump from Union Square around 1:20 p.m., after it had spent two hours drawing crowds.
"NYC Parks stands firmly against any unpermitted erection in city parks," said Parks Department representative Sam Biederman in an official statement, "no matter how small."
Dozens of New Yorkers stopped to gawk and pose with the full-frontal sculpture, which had been plastered with stickers reading “#DONALD JK TRUMP” and “MADMAN,” until Parks Department workers arrived to take the statue away.
Onlookers booed as two Parks Department workers pushed the naked sculpture from its base, breaking it at The Donald’s shins.
“Take his nasty feet, too!” one woman yelled as the men carted the statue away to a nearby truck.
Crowds followed the figure as city employees placed it face down in the flatbed — but not before one passerby slapped the statue’s butt.
Workers pried away the base, which had been glued to the cobblestones, to remove it from the ground.
The base featured an engraved plaque at the bottom that read “The Emperor Has No Balls,” and the name "INDECLINE," the California-based group that claimed responsibility for the statue, as well as the artist's signature, “Ginger.”
At an unrelated press conference Thursday, City Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver said the nude Trump was a violation of park rules, and that you need permission before placing items in public places.
Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters Thursday that he hadn't seen the statue, but added of a naked Trump, “That is a frightening thought. When he’s wearing clothes I don’t like him.”
INDECLINE, which sent out a press release Thursday describing themselves as an “American Activist Collective” made up of graffiti artists, filmmakers, writers, and musicians, said they collaborated with Cleveland-based artist and sculptor “Ginger” on the project.
They commissioned five naked Trump statues that they placed in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Cleveland, and New York City, they said.
“Unlike the statues, it’s our hope that Donald Trump, our modern day Emperor of Fascism and Bigotry is never installed in the most powerful political and military position in the world,” the group said in a statement.
INDECLINE added that the sculptures leave behind the “embodiment of the ghastly soul of one of America’s most infamous and reviled politicians.”
“These fleeting installations represent this fleeting nightmare and in the fall, it is our wish to look back and laugh at Donald Trump’s failed and delusional quest to obtain the presidency,” they said.
