The piece will be part of his Art and Protest collection

In 2018, during President Donald Trump's visit to the United Kingdom, Londoners showed their displeasure with a huge hot air balloon of the president depicted as a screaming baby holding a cell phone with the Twitter app. The balloon, whose use was approved by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, accompanied citizens' protests in front of Parliament. Photographs of it went viral internationally, causing the balloon to reach the United States where it was used on different occasions by anti-Trump groups in the country.

Since then, the Museum of London showed its interest in acquiring the figure as part of its collection of emblematic or representative objects of different protests throughout history. Currently the collection consists of items ranging from the suffragette marches in the 1920s to pieces from the Black Lives Matter protests, held in the summer of 2020.

Sharon Ament, director of the Museum of London, celebrated the recent acquisition with the following statement:

“With this acquisition of the inflatable baby we can commemorate the wave of emotions that flooded the city during that day, and capture the resistance movement (…) A feeling that prevails today as we live in these difficult times, demonstrating that Londoners know how to unite in the face of adversity.”

The 20-foot-tall “Trump Baby” balloon was made by a team led by Leo Murray. Since 2017, Murray had already worked on campaigns against Trump's policies such as “Bridges not walls,” but for the 2018 visit he decided to go for something more “comic.” The costs of making the balloon were paid through a crowdfunding campaign, which in addition to reaching the goal generated enough income to create 4 other replicas that were used in different countries.

The team commented that, although they donated the giant balloon, they still have a smaller version that they will continue to use in future protests. With that balloon they hope to remind the world of the social resistance that existed during the period of Donald Trump's government.

With information from ArtNet News and the Washington Post.