Tussaud’s Waxworks In Texas Removes Trump Figure Because People Keep Punching It: Report

Louis Tussaud’s Waxworks in San Antonia, Texas, has been forced to move a wax figure of former president Donald Trump to a storage room because a few museum visitors kept pummeling him, according to the San Antonio Express-News.

Visitors had inflicted so much damage to the figure that management had it pulled from public view, said Clay Stewart, regional manager for Ripley Entertainment, which owns the wax museum.

The scratches to Trump’s face were deep, according to the newspaper.

“When it’s a highly political figure, attacks can be a problem,” Stewart said.

Stewart said the museum will likely keep the figure in storage until after the museum receives a wax figure of President Joe Biden, currently in the works at Ripley Entertainment’s headquarters in Orlando, Florida.

“Wax figures are rotated all the time,” Stewart said.

“With limited space, the museum decides which figures to display based on how the popularity of the politician, celebrity or star athlete has stood up over time,” the Express-News reports. “For now, Trump is in good company. He’s sharing storage space with W.C. Fields, George Washington and nearly 30 other wax figures. Trump’s removal was the result of the damage the figure sustained, not the ebb and flow of his public status.”

“Our wax figures will need repairing from time to time,” said Suzanne Smagala-Potts, Ripley Entertainment’s public relations director.

Visitors’ attacks on the Trump wax figure only increased as the 2020 presidential campaign heated up early in the summer, according to Stewart.

“Not even moving Trump to the lobby, where ticket attendants could keep an eye out for attackers, stopped them from taking shots at the statue, which is dressed in a blue suit and the Republican’s trademark red tie,” the newspaper reports. “So Tussaud’s quietly trundled the presidential waxwork into storage in July. Museum employees confirmed the removal to the Express-News this week. Trump was one of the most polarizing presidents in U.S. history. But beating up wax statues of former or sitting presidents isn’t an unheard-of property crime.”

“We’ve always had trouble with the presidential section because no matter what president it was — Bush, Obama or Trump — they’ve all had people beat them,” Stewart said. “The ears were torn off Obama six times. And then Bush’s nose was punched in.”

He was referring to President George W. Bush, not his father, the late George H.W. Bush.

“People are just aggressive about their political party,” he said.

“The wax Obama was shipped to Orlando repeatedly for repairs. But Trump has been stuck in San Antonio because COVID-19 restrictions have caused a shortage of artists at the corporate office, Stewart said. For Obama at least, the abuse has stopped.”

“He has not been beaten as much since he left office,” Stewart said.