Artist Statement: Trump Towers

Trump Towers rises like a dystopian skyline—four monolithic smokestacks constructed from rusted nuts and bolts, towering into the air like monuments to a dying age. Their surfaces are scorched and corroded, evoking the grime and permanence of unchecked industry. At the top of one tower, a vent spews toxic smoke.

This sculpture is not a celebration of strength or progress. It is a fossil built to represent the Trump administration’s aggressive dismantling of environmental protections in favor of short-term fossil fuel profits. Where once the Clean Air Act and the EPA’s regulatory authority served to limit pollution, safeguard communities, and support a renewable future, the towers stand in their place.

In 2025, dozens of Biden-era environmental rules were repealed or gutted: methane emission standards rolled back, clean car mandates overturned, and fossil fuel leasing on public lands expanded. The Paris Agreement was abandoned once again. Investment in renewables was slashed in favor of drilling, fracking, and coal subsidies. The administration’s vision for America’s energy future is not wind, not sun—but smoke.

The name Trump Towers is intentionally ironic: it reclaims the branding of luxury and legacy, and reassigns it to what the administration is truly building—a legacy of pollution, extraction, and irreversible damage.