MEXICO CITY ¨C A massive image of U.S. President Donald Trump as an alien intruder now towers above one of the busiest roads in Mexico City, urging motorists to ¡°Make America Great Again.¡±
The gaudy billboard sports a caricature of Trump with a blue-and-red fleshless face beneath his blond hair. It went up above the two-tier inner city ring road known as the Periferico a week ago after failing to find takers in the United States.
The 13-by-7-meter (43-by-23-foot) finger-pointing Trump, with a backdrop of an American flag, was originally intended to adorn a U.S. city, said its creator, Chicago-based artist Mitch O¡¯Connell.
¡°America is afraid to put up this tongue-in-cheek billboard,¡± O¡¯Connell said by telephone. ¡°Then Mexico came to mind because Trump started out his campaign by being cruel and mean to everyone in Mexico.¡±
The White House had no comment on the sign.
A real estate developer and reality TV star turned politician, Trump sparked fury in Mexico when he launched his campaign for the presidency in 2015 with a pledge to build a massive border wall and leveled accusations that Mexico had sent rapists and drug runners across the border.
At the time, O¡¯Connell was working on a poster for a science-fiction and horror film festival featuring John Carpenter¡¯s 1988 cult classic ¡°They Live¡± about aliens living incognito among humans. That project would inspire his vision of Trump.
About four months ago, O¡¯Connell set up a GoFundMe page to get the image onto a billboard. The campaign raised about $3,000.
He failed in some 30 attempts at pitching the arresting image in Washington, Chicago and other U.S. cities. He said he found no U.S. company ¡°wanted to touch it because it¡¯s political.¡±
In the end, the Trump billboard was placed in Mexico and will remain on display for about a month, said Jorge Alderete, an Argentine artist living in Mexico City who helped mount the billboard above the busy highway.
¡°With every month that passed since I did the drawing two years ago, he has become more like that crazy alien,¡± O¡¯Connell said. ¡°It seems over time he became more and more like the movie, so it became more and more appropriate over time.¡±
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