(VIDEO) A Gilded Nude Trump Statue Called The Orange Plague Goes on Display Inside the Strasbourg Parliament

STRASBOURG, France — A gold-coated statue of a naked Donald Trump sitting on a smaller man's shoulders went on display Tuesday in the European Parliament, invited by a Danish member and billed by its maker as a protest against the president's climate record.

Danish artist Jens Galschiøt titled the work "The Orange Plague." It is also called "King of Injustice." The figure holds a long golf club. With the pedestal it stands about 2.5 to 2.6 meters, and the artist says it is coated in 23-karat gold. An orange cloth was pulled off at the unveiling. The statue sits at a busy junction between two parliament buildings and is scheduled to stay through Thursday, then travel to the COP31 climate conference in Turkey in November.

A card beside it reads, in the voice of the figure: "I am sitting on the back of a man. He is sinking under my burden. I will do anything to help him. Except stepping down from his back."

Galschiøt wrote on his site that Trump represents "one of the greatest threats to the rule based world order, democratic values and our common effort to solving the climate crisis," and that "we must address this issue and stand together against such destructive influence." He called the piece "a satirical outcry against Trump and the US' assault on the green transition and the rule-based world order," and said it was made "to address 'the elephant in the room'" and start a debate on "how the US is destroying the world's only chance to counter the climate catastrophe." A longer note on the site said Trump was "undermining the climate efforts, rolling back hard-won progress, and even destroying the scientific data that documents it," and using economic pressure to discourage other countries from green policies.

The invitation came from Per Clausen, a Danish left-wing member of the European Parliament. "If someone is so thin-skinned that they cannot tolerate this sculpture being exhibited in the European Parliament, then they have no place on the world stage," Clausen said.

The statue is not new to a conference hall. It was shown at COP30 in Brazil last November, at the Munich Security Conference, at Denmark's Rebild Festival marking the 250th anniversary of the United States, and at "Hands off Greenland" demonstrations in Copenhagen. Strasbourg is the parliamentary stop. CNN described the figure as surrounded by golf equipment. The White House had not commented in the reports of the unveiling.

Galschiøt has built a career on public sculptures that institutions then have to decide whether to host. Parliament hosted this one for three days. The text at the base does not argue a policy. It states a refusal to get down. The artist's climate claim is the reason he gave for putting it in the building. The member who invited him framed objection as thin skin. The statue leaves Thursday.