Since President Donald Trump began the Iran war nearly five months ago, he has repeatedly said it’s almost over or that the U.S. has, in fact, already won. His resumption of the conflict is just the latest sign that neither of those claims are true.
While Trump’s antagonistic second-term foreign policy is unlikely to win him any actual peace prizes, the President didn’t need to earn the new participation trophy on the National Mall. The oversized, satirical statue awards him a prize for just showing up.
Iran War Participation Trophy is a 10-foot-tall trophy made of wood, foam, and plaster by the anonymous protest art group The Secret Handshake. The group’s previous installations on the National Mall include a statue of Trump and Jeffrey Epstein frolicking hand-in-hand, and another that depicts the pair as if in the movie Titanic. The group has also created an arcade game about the Iran war that’s impossible to win. The trophy is up near the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the Tidal Basin.
The piece is a loving cup-style trophy with two tall decorative handles, “#1” written on the cup’s front, and “Participant” written on the base. A plaque affixed to the display says the award is made out to Trump “for his enthusiastic involvement in the Iran war. While some concern themselves with military strategy, diplomacy, or measurable outcomes, President Trump demonstrated the courage to participate regardless of the final score.”
Another plaque that’s part of the display invites visitors to bring their own trophies. Plastic trophies are already set along its base.
“We didn’t make up the idea of a big dumb trophy as being important. He did,” The Secret Handshake tells Fast Company in an email. “And he even admitted when he didn’t win the Nobel Prize that he doesn’t feel the need to think about peace anymore. And now we’re out there literally destroying a nation. Lives are being lost. Iranians and Americans. Over seemingly the pursuit of recognition and shiny gold things.”
The group says the purpose of the work is to visualize the stupidity of the war’s justification—and to do so in a larger-than-life way. Its work parodies Trump’s second term by mimicking Trump’s own ostentatious style and affinity for gold, as seen in the president’s various side projects under development in Washington, D.C.