Naked statues of Donald Trump appear in various US cities

A number of statues depicting US presidential candidate Donald Trump without his clothes on were erected in various US cities yesterday morning.

The statues were unveiled in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cleveland and Seattle. Titled "The Emperor Has No Balls", the project was devised by the anarchist collective INDECLINE, presenting Trump in an unflattering and humiliating way.

A spokesperson for INDECLINE told The Washington Post the project was inspired by the Hans Christian Anderson story "The Emperor's New Clothes" which depicts a vain and overconfident leader. The spokesperson also said the project is meant to poke fun at the tendency for those in authoritarian positions to raise monuments of themselves.

The statues are credited to a Las Vegas-based artist called Ginger, who said he was approached by INDECLINE because of his pervious work designing monsters for horror movies and haunted houses. A video of Ginger creating these statues went up on INDECLINE's YouTube page.

The New York City statue became a busy tourist spot until the parks and recreation department took it down. A spokeswoman for the NYC parks and recreation centre stated: "NYC Parks stands firmly against any unpermitted erection in city parks, no matter how small."