The Donald Trump you see on TV is not the Donald Trump that Steven Barber met when he delivered a nine-foot bronze statue of the president to his south Florida golf club earlier this month.
“When the camera is on, he’s a showman,” Barber said. “But when you meet the guy, he’s calm, kind, introspective ― just extremely thoughtful. He’s a f―ing Buddha.”
Barber is a filmmaker who recently pivoted to creating monuments and is now on a “divine path to shine a light on American exceptionalism.” Good friends with Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Barber made his breakout piece to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing; it was installed at the Kennedy Space Center in 2019. That was followed by bronze statues of the Apollo 13 crew and Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, all requiring significant funding and hard-fought permissions. “Everything I’ve done is impossible,” he said.
Barber, who splits his time between Montecito and Santa Monica, describes himself as the “visionary” who commissions the monuments. The actual construction is carried out by the Lundeens, a family of fine art sculptors out of Colorado. “They are absolute masters of their craft,” he said. “Their work is all over the world.”
Barber knew it was his duty to enshrine Trump’s place in American history when the president survived an assassination attempt last summer. “This has nothing to do with politics,” Barber insisted. “This is a guy who took a bullet and jumped up and said, ‘Fight, fight, fight!’ An amazing energy came from that moment.”
The monument, he noted, is the first of a living president still in office. His future projects include Jimmy Carter and, hopefully, Bill Clinton. “But Clinton’s a weird cat,” he said. “I’m not sure it’s going to happen.”
The six-figure price tag for the Trump statue was covered by Anthony Constantino, CEO of custom printing company Sticker Mule, who made headlines last year for installing a 100-foot “VOTE FOR TRUMP” sign in New York. “When I saw that, I said to myself, ‘This guy’s a patriot,’” Barber said. “So, I tracked him down.”
Barber, Constantino, and the Lundeens were given a seven-minute audience with the president when the monument was installed at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. Barber said he’d practiced for months what he would say ― including, “Lincoln saved the country, but you saved the world” ― but all that went out the window when they were face-to-face. “I was watching him look up at the monument, gold and bronze, the sun beaming off it ― it was an out-of-body experience,” Barber said.
Trump loved the statue, Barber said. “He was blown away by it.” By trade, the president is a builder, so he inquired about the hot wax construction process and asked if the piece would survive a hurricane. The team assured him it could withstand a Category 5. Trump also noticed the pedestal was made of “Trump heavy coral,” a building material he invented and patented, Barber said.
Barber has received major backlash over the project ― like the text he got during our interview that called him a “moral-grifting coward” ― but he lets it roll off his back. “This was not so much about Trump as it was about the country,” he said. “I essentially gifted this monument to the 77 million people who voted for him.”
“I’m a conservative. I’m a Republican. I love this country,” Barber continued. “Trump does a lot of f―d up s―t, but he does more good than bad. And compared to the last guy, he’s Jesus Christ incarnate.” Barber said he’s not hardcore MAGA ― “that’s having a Trans Am on your lawn and listening to Skynyrd,” he said ― but does agree with the president on most topics, especially transgender issues and public safety.
Barber is hopeful more Trump statues will be made. He’s been speaking with the mayor of Huntington Beach, which recently declared itself a “non-sanctuary city,” one of the few in California. “Again, this is not about red or blue,” Barber said. “It’s about management.” Look how Mayor Karen Bass let Los Angeles burn, he exclaimed. Or how Governor Gavin Newsom has allowed homelessness to spiral out of control. “I’m just a common-sense American,” he said.
Whatever the future holds for Barber’s newfound mission of monument-making, he’s still basking in the seven minutes he spent with the most powerful person in the world. “Whether you love him or hate him, you have to admit what the guy has done with his life is remarkable. He represents everything that’s good about this country.”
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