US President Donald Trump has been raising steam for weeks with ever new tariffs - now he is also steaming as a smoking man in your living room. Trump has been omnipresent in the media for some time now, explained Sven Reichl, CEO of Seiffener Volkskunst eG. So it seemed only natural to immortalize him as a smoking figure. The wooden figures are part of the traditional Ore Mountains arts and crafts tradition, which is now part of Germany's intangible cultural heritage.
The figure is a caricature of Trump standing on a pedestal in the colors of the US flag: with a red tie, blond hair and a red baseball cap with the inscription "U.S.A". The smoke is not coming out of his mouth, as is usual with many such figures, but from the top of his head.
After Kohl, Merkel and Scholz, Trump now follows
The artisans in Seiffen are skilled at transforming politicians into smoking figures. Recently, Olaf Scholz, Christian Lindner and Annalena Baerbock have been turned, and Angela Merkel, Helmut Kohl and Erich Honecker are also in the range. An initial series of 100 pieces of Trump has now been produced, said Reichl. Depending on how demand develops, more will be produced.
However, Reichl and his employees are not the first to work with Donald Trump in the Erzgebirge: He already exists as a nutcracker. During Trump's first term in office, there was a specific request for such a figure from the USA, said Michael Lorenz, Managing Director of Erzgebirgische Volkskunst Richard Glässer GmbH. Since then, the Trump nutcracker has been on offer. They would continue to be produced depending on demand. In the Ore Mountains, it has always been a tradition that the mostly grim wooden nutcrackers are modeled on figures of the authorities.
Queen beats Trump as a nutcracker
In terms of sales figures, however, the Trump nutcracker is not number one, as Lorenz reveals. Queen Elizabeth of England, who died in 2022, is far more popular. "The Queen is the undisputed box office hit."
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