Latest news with #StatueofLiberty
Express Tribune
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Anti-Trump "Dictator Approved" sculpture erected on National Mall, White House responds
An anti-Trump sculpture titled 'Dictator Approved' has been installed on the National Mall, igniting backlash from both political observers and the White House. The gold-painted, 8-foot artwork features a thumbs-up hand crushing the Statue of Liberty's crown, with plaques quoting authoritarian leaders who have publicly praised Donald Trump. The installation, permitted by the National Park Service, coincided with Trump's June 14 military parade marking the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary and his 79th birthday. Organisers of the artwork say it was intended to criticise what they described as 'imagery similar to autocratic, oppressive regimes.' Each side of the sculpture's base features direct quotes, including Vladimir Putin calling Trump 'a very bright and talented man,' Viktor Orbán describing him as 'the most respected,' Jair Bolsonaro admiring their 'shared values,' and Kim Jong Un citing 'extraordinary courage.' In response, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson stated: 'If these Democrat activists were living in a dictatorship, their eye-sore of a sculpture wouldn't be sitting on the National Mall right now.' She added, 'In the United States of America you have the freedom to display your so-called 'art,' no matter how ugly it is.' The statue is authorised to remain in place through Sunday.
Mint
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Mint
‘Dictator approved' sculpture smashing Statue of Liberty in DC baffles internet: ‘Trump should take a selfie with it'
In another turn of events, the artists behind last year's controversial 'poop statue" are back with another masterpiece. This time, it is called 'Dictator Approved', a mocking nod to US President Donald Trump. The statue stands tall in the same spot on the National Mall near Third Street NW. The 8-foot-tall sculpture of a gold-painted hand gives a thumbs-up while crushing the seafoam green crown of the Statue of Liberty. According to a permit from the National Park Service, the artists created Dictator Approved as a response to the military parade held on June 14. 'Will feature imagery similar to autocratic, oppressive regime, i.e. N. Korea, Russia, and China, marching through DC, " the application penned by the sculpture's architects states. According to the parade, the purpose of this artistic masterpiece is to bring to notice the 'the praising these types of oppressive leaders have given Donald Trump.' An all four sides of the artwork's base, quotes from world leaders are inscribed. One is from Russian President Vladimir Putin that states, 'President Trump is a very bright and talented man.' Another from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban which states, 'The most respected, the most feared person is Donald Trump.' The third side features a quote from former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, 'We do have a great deal of shared values. I admire President Trump.' The fourth quote is from no other than North Korea's Kim Jong Un, ''Your Excellency.' A 'special' relationship. 'The extraordinary courage of President Trump.'' The permit lists Mary Harris as the applicant which allows the artwork to be in place until 5:00 PM of June 22, The Washington Post reported citing permit documents. Its placement was authorised from 7:00 AM of June 16. Social media users were in a frenzy on seeing the 'Dictator Approved' artwork and flooded the internet with hilarious reactions. A user stated, 'This is more beautiful than the statue of liberty itself.' Another user remarked, 'Trump is dictator-approved.' A third user stated, 'This is hilarious!' A fourth user quipped, 'Trump needs to do a selfie next to it.' A fifth user remarked, 'Art as protest—love it. A bold statement against authoritarianism right on the Mall.'
Japan Today
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Japan Today
The world may be rethinking the American dream
By LAURIE KELLMAN A staff member walks past a message to students that hangs on the wall at Place Bridge Academy in Denver on May 25. For centuries, people in other countries saw the United States as place of welcome and opportunity. Now, President Donald Trump's drive for mass deportations of migrants is riling the streets of Los Angeles, college campuses, even churches — and fueling a global rethinking about the virtues and promise of coming to America. 'The message coming from Washington is that you are not welcome in the United States,' said Edwin van Rest, CEO of Studyportals, which tracks real-time searches by international students considering studying in other countries. Student interest in studying in America has dropped to its lowest level since the COVID-19 pandemic, it found. 'The fact is, there are great opportunities elsewhere.' There has long been a romanticized notion about immigration and America. The reality has always been different, with race and ethnicity playing undeniable roles in the tension over who can be an American. The U.S. still beckons to the "huddled masses' from the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. The strong economy has helped draw millions more every year, with the inflow driving the U.S. population over 340 million. Early clues across industries — like tourism, trade, entertainment and education — suggest the American dream is fading for foreigners who have historically flooded to the U.S. Polling by Pew Research Center from January through April found that opinions of the U.S. have worsened over the past year in 15 of the 24 countries it surveyed. Trump and many of his supporters maintain that migrants in the country illegally threaten American safety, jobs and culture. But people in the country legally also have been caught in Trump's dragnet. And that makes prospective visitors to the U.S., even as tourists, leery. Trump's global tariff war and his campaign against international students who have expressed pro-Palestinian sympathies stick especially stubbornly in the minds of people across American borders who for decades clamored to participate in the land of free speech and opportunity. 'The chances of something truly horrific happening are almost certainly tiny,' Duncan Greaves, 62, of Queensland, Australia, advised a Reddit user asking whether to risk a vacation to the land of barbeques, big sky country and July 4 fireworks. 'Basically it's like the Dirty Harry quote: 'Do you feel lucky?'" For much of its history, America had encouraged immigration as the country sought intellectual and economic fuel to spur its growth. But from the beginning, the United States has wrestled with the question of who is allowed to be an American. The new country was built on land brutally swiped from Native Americans. It was later populated by millions of enslaved Africans. The American Civil War ignited in part over the same subject. The federal Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers for a decade. During World War II, the U.S. government incarcerated about 120,000 people of Japanese descent in 10 concentration camps. About two-thirds were U.S. citizens. Still, the United States has always been a nation of immigrants, steered by the 'American Creed' developed by Thomas Jefferson, which posits that the tenets of equality, hard work and freedom are inherently American. Everyone, after all, comes from somewhere — a fact underscored on-camera in the Oval Office this month when German Chancellor Friedrich Merz gave the president the framed birth certificate of Trump's grandfather, also named Friedrich, who emigrated from Germany in 1885. He was one of millions of Germans who fled war and economic strife to move to the United States in the late 19th Century. There's a story there, too, that suggests the Trump family knows both the triumphs of immigration and the struggle and shame of being expelled. After marrying and making a fortune in America, the elder Trump attained U.S. citizenship and tried return to Germany. He was expelled for failing to complete his military service — and wrote about the experience. 'Why should we be deported? This is very, very hard for a family,' Friedrich Trump wrote to Luitpold, prince regent of Bavaria in 1905, according to a translation in Harper's magazine. 'What will our fellow citizens think if honest subjects are faced with such a decree — not to mention the great material losses it would incur.' Trump himself has married two immigrant women: the late Ivana Zelníčková Trump, of what's now the Czech Republic, and his current wife, Melania Knauss Trump of Slovenia. It's hard to overstate the degree to which immigration has changed the face and culture of America — and divided it. Immigration in 2024 drove U.S. population growth to its fastest rate in 23 years as the nation surpassed 340 million residents, the U.S. Census Bureau said in December. Almost 2.8 million more people immigrated to the United States last year than in 2023, partly because of a new method of counting that adds people who were admitted for humanitarian reasons. Net international migration accounted for 84% of the nation's 3.3 million-person increase in the most recent data reported. Immigration accounted for all of the growth in 16 states that otherwise would have lost population, according to the Brookings Institution. But where some Americans see immigration largely as an influx of workers and brain power, Trump sees an 'invasion,' a longstanding view. Since returning to the White House, Trump has initiated an far-reaching campaign of immigration enforcement that has pushed the limits of executive power and clashed with federal judges trying to restrain him over his invocation of special powers to deport people, cancel visas and deposit deportees in third countries. In his second term, unlike his first, he's not retreating from some unpopular positions on immigration. Instead, the subject has emerged as Trump's strongest issue in public polling, reflecting both his grip on the Republican base and a broader shift in public sentiment. A June survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 46% of U.S. adults approve of Trump's handling of immigration, which is nearly 10 percentage points higher than his approval rating on the economy and trade. The poll was conducted at the beginning of the Los Angeles protests and did not include questions about Trump's military deployment to the city. The U.S. is still viewed as an economic powerhouse, though people in more countries consider China to be the world's top economy, according to the Pew poll, and it's unclear whether Trump's policies could cause a meaningful drain of international students and others who feel under siege in the United States. Netherlands-based Studyportals, which analyzes the searches for international schools by millions of students worldwide, reported that weekly pageviews for degrees in the U.S, collapsed by half between Jan. 5 and the end of April. It predicted that if the trend continues, the demand for programs in the U.S. could plummet further, with U.S. programs losing ground to countries like the United Kingdom and Australia. 'International students and their families seek predictability and security when choosing which country to trust with their future,' said Fanta Aw, CEO of NAFSA, which represents international educators. 'The U.S. government's recent actions have naturally shaken their confidence in the United States.' © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Newsweek
a day ago
- Politics
- Newsweek
White House Says Activists Have Right to Display 'Ugly' Anti-Trump Statue
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A White House spokesperson said that in America "you have the freedom to display your so-called 'art,' no matter how ugly it is" after a statue mocking President Donald Trump and highlighting praise of him from authoritarian leaders was placed on the National Mall in Washington D.C. Speaking to the Washington Post, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said: "If these Democrat activists were living in a dictatorship, their eye-sore of a sculpture wouldn't be sitting on the National Mall right now." Is is unclear who the creators of the artwork are. Why It Matters Critics of Trump have long argued he has authoritarian impulses, with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris saying during the campaign she believed her opponent was a "fascist" ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Trump strongly denied these claims, and in turn argued Harris was a "threat to democracy." What To Know According to the Washington Post in their request for a National Park Service permit, the creators said the artwork was a response to the June 14 military parade, which Trump attended. The parade took place to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army and coincided with Trump's birthday. Republican Senator Rand Paul said it could look like "images you saw of the Soviet Union or North Korea." The new piece of protest art on The Mall is an 8-foot-tall sculpture featuring a reconstruction of the Statue of Liberty's head being crushed by a large gold-colored thumbs-up, along with the wording "DICTATOR APPROVED" and a series of quotes from leaders with various levels of authoritarian, if not autocratic, tendencies praising Trump. The quotes featured are from such leaders as Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Putin's reads: "President Trump is a very bright and talented man." And Bolsonaro's: "We do have a great deal of shared values. I admire President Trump." An anti-Trump art installation statue is seen in front of the U.S. Capitol on the National Mall on June 17, 2025 in Washington, D.C. An anti-Trump art installation statue is seen in front of the U.S. Capitol on the National Mall on June 17, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Kayla Bartkowski/GETTY The permit application was issued by one Mary Harris though no further information about her or any other associated artists was provided, according to the Washington Post. It runs until 5 p.m. ET on June 22. According to the publication, the new sculpture is "very similar in style and materials" to a number of other pieces of protest art that were displayed in locations including the National Mall during the fall of 2024. One of these featured a bronze reconstruction of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's desk with a large swiveled turd on top of it along with references to the January 6, 2021, storming of Congress by Trump supporters in a bid to prevent the certification of Joe Biden's 2020 election victory. A plaque placed on the artwork read: "This memorial honors the brave men and women who broke into the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021 to loot, urinate and defecate throughout those hallowed halls in order to overturn an election." What People Are Saying White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said: "If these Democrat activists were living in a dictatorship, their eye-sore of a sculpture wouldn't be sitting on the National Mall right now. In the United States of America you have the freedom to display your so-called 'art,' no matter how ugly it is." Speaking to the Washington Post, Francesca Carlo, a 20-year-old visiting Washington D.C. from Cleveland, said: "If all these authoritarian politicians approve of our president then maybe people will see a pattern recognition and see where democracy is headed." On X one user from Harlem, New York, wrote: "New public art that was just installed on the National Mall. The artist, obviously, is brilliant, but an enormous shoutout to the genius who managed to secure a permit in order to erect the statue legally." What Happens Next The "dictator approved" artwork has a permit to remain in its position on the National Mall until June 22. It remains to be seen if other similarly styled works will appear going forward.
India Today
a day ago
- Politics
- India Today
News Menu, June 19: PM wraps up historic Croatia visit; Keeladi hots up Tamil Nadu
Good morning. On June 19, 1885, the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor as a gift from France, symbolising freedom and resilience. In its spirit, India Today presents a news menu blending global conflicts, diplomatic efforts, and domestic milestones, reflecting a nation's resolve amid War: Conflict Enters Seventh DayIran launched hypersonic "Sajil" missiles (2,000 km range) at Israel, marking their first use in this conflict, as per Iranian state TV. Israel reports striking 40 Iranian sites, including centrifuge production and weapons facilities, while Iran deployed drones in Over 585 killed in Israel's attacks on Iran; 24 deaths reported in Israel from Iranian denies Trump's claim of seeking White House talks. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected an "imposed war" or peace, warning that US strikes on Iran would bring "serious irreparable consequences."Quick Take: Khamenei's defiance signals Iran's intent to escalate despite heavy losses. Will Trump's pressure force a diplomatic pause, or deepen the regional crisis?Operation Sindhu: Indian Students Evacuated from IranUnder Operation Sindhu, 110 Indian students stranded in northern Iran amid the conflict landed in Delhi early Thursday. The Ministry of External Affairs coordinated their evacuation, with more expected to follow. Students' reactions reflect relief and anxiety over the escalating Modi's Historic Croatia VisitPrime Minister Narendra Modi, the first Indian PM to visit Croatia, concludes his three-nation tour on Thursday. Bilateral talks focused on trade, technology, and counter-terrorism, strengthening India's Balkan outreach. PM Modi returns to India in Five Assembly Seats TodayBypolls for Kadi (SC) and Visavadar (Gujarat), Nilambur (Kerala), Ludhiana West (Punjab), and Kaliganj (West Bengal) are set for June 20, with vote counting on June Kadi's poll follows BJP MLA Karsanbhai Solanki's death; Visavadar's due to AAP MLA's resignation. BJP fields Rajendra Chavda (Kadi) and Kirit Patel (Visavadar); Congress nominates Ramesh Chavda (Kadi) and Nitin Ranpariya (Visavadar); AAP fields Jagdish Chavda (Kadi) and Gopal Italia (Visavadar).Kerala: Nilambur's bypoll stems from PV Anvar's resignation. Congress fields Aryadan Shoukath; LDF nominates M Ludhiana West's poll follows AAP MLA Gurpreet Singh Gogi's death. AAP fields Sanjeev Arora, facing Congress' Bharat Bhushan Ashu, BJP's Jiwan Gupta, and SAD's Parupkar Singh Bengal: Kaliganj's bypoll was triggered by Trinamool MLA Nasiruddin Ahamed's death. Trinamool fields Alifa Ahmed; BJP nominates Ashish Ghosh; Congress-Left fields Kabil Uddin bypolls test regional political dynamics ahead of 2026-27 state Gandhi Health UpdateCongress leader Sonia Gandhi, hospitalised for medical evaluation, is likely to be discharged on June 20. Her condition is Census: A Deep DiveAs India prepares for its next Census, key questions arise about data collection, methodology evolution, and socio-political implications. India Today presents an in-depth story on the Census's scope and Water Crisis and Rain AftermathDelhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta meets Water Minister Pravesh Verma to address the water crisis and post-rain waterlogging. Heavy rain under a cyclonic circulation disrupts normalcy, with IMD alerts till June Yellow Alert for Heavy RainMumbai faces another round of heavy rain on Thursday, under a yellow alert, after recent waterlogging chaos. IMD forecasts disruptions till June Stories: Kerala and Tamil Nadu TensionsKerala: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan criticises Governor Arif Mohammed Khan for displaying RSS leaders' portraits at Raj Bhavan, accusing him of pushing an RSS Nadu: Actor-politician Vijay and DMK escalate rhetoric against the Centre over Keeladi excavation, alleging suppression of Tamil identity. Vijay warns, 'Tamil civilisation is a volcano.'Bengaluru: Human Skeleton FoundA human skeleton was discovered in an apartment pit in Begur, Bengaluru, prompting a police Plane Crash: DNA Testing in ProgressDNA matching for Air India Flight AI-171 victims continues, with 206 samples matched and 169 bodies released by Wednesday. The crash claimed 274 lives. Ramesh Vishwaskumar, 38, is the lone survivor, having jumped from the plane. CCTV footage shows the pilot's failed attempt to regain thrust after new bride from Balotra, headed to London, and five family members from Banswara were among the victims. Arjun Patolia from Amreli, who came to perform his wife's last rites, also perished. Two Manipur cabin crew are feared dead. Tata Group pledges Rs 1 crore per victim's BiteAs the Indian cricket team prepares for the first Test against England, every fan is debating the legacy of Virat Kohli vis a vis the top three–Gavaskar, Tendulkar and Dravid. Where do you think he stands?
