The Secret Handshake’s Latest Statue Mocks President Trump for Toe-Related Deferment to Avoid Vietnam War Draft

One of the five deferments President Donald Trump received to avoid being drafted for the Vietnam War is now the subject of a new statue mocking him by the Secret Handshake, an anonymous artist collective. On Monday, a gold statue appeared on the National Mall depicting Trump sitting down and holding his right foot, reports the Washington Post.

The plaque at the base of the statue says, “We honor the service and sacrifice of our Commander in Chief, Donald J. Trump. He’s a soldier in spirit, who marched to the front lines of dodging the draft, armed with a perfect diagnosis of bone spurs,” a reference to the deferment in question.

The inscription adds, “We salute a leader who knows you can’t spell sacrifice without ‘I,’ and a warrior who reminds us that sometimes when you’re called to stand up, it’s best to just sit down and rest your feet.” The statue has been named The Foot Soldier.

The statue was accompanied by a mascot, a masked individual in a big-toe costume that had nine hairs and their name “TOEY” printed in block letters. “I’m the biggest toe. The hugest toe. Huge. Hugest toe. Largest toe that anyone’s ever seen,” says Toey, concealing their identity and repeating things such as “Draft dodger? I hardly know her.”

In a statement on Monday responding to the work’s installation, White House spokesman Davis Ingle said, “Trump Derangement Syndrome is a sick and incurable disease that has rotted the brains of these Democrat activists. President Trump will never waver in fighting for and protecting the American people.” During the Vietnam War, Trump received deferments, four of them being for his studies in college.

The Foot Soldier is the latest work by the Secret Handshake, whose work has been taunting the president since 2024. They include a pile of feces; an 8-foot-tall sculpture of a gold-painted hand squashing the green crown of the Statue of Liberty; and a statue of Trump holding hands with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, which has repeatedly been reinstalled throughout D.C.

On Monday, the group said that as Trump “continues to wage a war and threaten new ones, it’s time to harken back to a time when Donald Trump would do whatever it takes to stay out of combat.”