Danish MEP Hosts Trump Protest Sculpture the Orange Plague at the European Parliament

A gilded copper sculpture of Donald Trump by Danish artist Jens Galschiøt has been brought into the European Parliament in Strasbourg for a three day exhibition hosted by Danish MEP Per Clausen, according to The Art Newspaper.

A 2.6 metre sculpture of US President Donald Trump, titled The Orange Plague, is being exhibited inside the European Parliament building in Strasbourg at the invitation of Danish MEP Per Clausen. The Art Newspaper reported on Wednesday, October 7 that Clausen is hosting a three day showing of the work by Danish artist Jens Galschiøt inside the Parliament.

Clausen is one of Denmark's 15 members of the European Parliament. The artist's own exhibition list for the sculpture includes the European Parliament in Strasbourg in October 2026. Strasbourg is the Parliament's official seat, where its monthly plenary sessions are held and where members from all 27 EU states gather, while most committee work takes place in Brussels.

A protest piece in gold leaf

Reports describe the work as a golden statue of a nude Trump. According to Galschiøt, The Orange Plague is made of copper covered in 23 carat gold leaf. He presents it as a criticism of Trump's climate and foreign policies and links it to Hans Christian Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes, the Danish fairy tale about a ruler whose court praises clothes that do not exist until a child says out loud what everyone can see.

The sculpture has been taken to political events before. Galschiøt lists earlier displays at the COP30 climate conference in Belém, Brazil, in 2025, and at demonstrations of solidarity with Greenland in Copenhagen in 2026. Greenland, a self governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, has been a source of friction between Copenhagen and Trump, who has repeatedly said the United States should take control of the island.

How it reached the Parliament

The exhibition entered the building through a procedure open to every member. A Parliament spokesperson told CNN, as relayed in the report, that the Parliament's quaestors approved it through the cultural event process available to MEPs. The five quaestors are members elected by the Parliament to deal with administrative and practical matters concerning their fellow members.

That gives the Parliament two reported roles: it is the venue, and its quaestors signed off on the event. No evidence has emerged that the Parliament or any other EU body commissioned the sculpture or endorsed its political message. The criticism of Trump expressed in the work is the artist's own.

What is still unknown

The exact opening and closing dates of the Strasbourg showing, who paid to transport and install the work, and whether any EU funds were involved have not been made public.

No White House response to the exhibition has been reported. For now, the display stands as an initiative of a single Danish MEP, staged on Parliament premises with the administrative approval of the Parliament's quaestors.