Some public institutions prefer to remain nonpartisan. If for no other reason than to avoid angering patrons or customers, and to spare themselves from boycotts or falling prey to “cancel culture.”
Others, however, are quite vocal in their political leanings. For a prime example of this, look no further than Berlin’s outpost of Madame Tussauds wax museum.
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The museum has a section dedicated to American presidents.
Among them are Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, and Donald Trump.
Ahead of the presidential election, the museum is taking a hard stance on how they believe it will turn out.
Museum officials decided they’d stage a display of their prediction of the outcome of the presidential election. Namely, they don’t think Donald Trump will win.
There’s no misunderstanding who they’re rooting for.
In a bold move, they’ve taken their statue of Trump and placed it in a dumpster. The statue is surrounded by Twitter bubbles that say things like, “Fake News!” and “You are fired!” There’s also a sticker on the dumpster that reads “Dump Trump.”
It was even wheeled off the stage.
Madame Tussauds officials were seen pushing the dumpster off the stage where the other presidential statues stand, and placed in front of a staged Trump Tower.
It was a “symbolic” gesture.
“Today’s activity is rather of a symbolic character ahead of the elections in the United States,” the museum’s marketing manager, Orkide Yalcindag, said to Reuters .
And it was done as a “preparatory measure.”
“We here at Madame Tussauds Berlin removed Donald Trump’s waxwork as a preparatory measure.”
Across the United States, cities are also taking preparatory measures in fear that the election’s results will cause protests.
Non-scalable fencing has been erected around the White House, and stores in Washington and New York, among others, have boarded up their windows.
Meanwhile, Madame Tussauds’ Barack Obama statue remains where it originally was, smiling affably on visitors.
It’s no secret that Obama shared an amicable relationship with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and his affable figure, which remains prominent and unmoved in the museum, seems to only further cement the institution’s political leanings.
Only time will tell if this was in fact a prescient move.
