Giant Golden Toilet Sculpture Appears Near the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall
A 10-foot-tall golden toilet has been installed on the National Mall, placed near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The functional sculpture, titled “A Throne Fit for a King,” is the latest politically charged intervention by the anonymous artist collective the Secret Handshake, which previously drew attention for “Best Friends Forever,” a work depicting a smiling Donald Trump alongside Jeffrey Epstein.
The artists describe the new installation as a “monument,” and they say it will remain on view for several days. At its center is a gold-colored toilet that can be sat upon, turning a familiar symbol of power and privilege into something pointedly public and bodily.
The target is specific: Trump’s renovation last year of the bathroom attached to the White House’s Lincoln Bedroom, a guest room long treated as a stage set for presidential mythmaking. The Secret Handshake has framed that remodel as emblematic of misplaced priorities, particularly because it took place during a government shutdown.
In an email statement, the group leaned into the absurdity of the premise. “With so much horror happening on a daily basis, it’s easy to forget what this President has actually accomplished. Like remodeling The Lincoln Bathroom,” they wrote.
The renovation itself became a minor cultural flashpoint online. The bathroom’s Art Deco–style green tile was reportedly replaced with marble, a change that prompted mockery for its antiseptic look. Trump defended the decision on Truth Social, calling the update “appropriate for the time of Abraham Lincoln” and suggesting the marble “could be the marble that was originally there.” He also touted the speed of the work, saying it was “happening faster than anticipated, one of my trademarks.”
The Secret Handshake’s sculpture amplifies those details into a blunt visual punchline. While the toilet appears to be porcelain, the surrounding cues are unmistakably gilded: the work includes gold-toned elements such as a trash can, lamps, and faucet handles, echoing the renovation’s emphasis on gleam.
A plaque accompanying “A Throne Fit for a King” pushes the satire further, presenting the remodel as a kind of executive triumph. It describes a moment of “unprecedented division, escalating conflict, and economic turmoil” in which the president supposedly focused on “what truly mattered: remodeling the Lincoln Bathroom in the White House.” The text calls the project his “crowning achievement,” praising “an unwavering visionary who looked down, saw a problem, and painted it gold.”
The piece also arrives with an art-historical wink. Its premise recalls Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan (b. 1960) and his 2016 work “America,” a fully functional toilet made of 18-karat solid gold that was installed at the Guggenheim Museum. The museum has said the work drew extraordinary crowds: about 100,000 people waited to use it during its year-long presentation.
Cattelan’s toilet entered political folklore the following year, when the Trump administration requested a loan of a Vincent van Gogh painting from the Guggenheim. The museum declined, citing policy that prevented the painting from traveling, and curator Nancy Spector instead offered “America” as an alternative.
By placing a sit-able golden toilet within sight of the Lincoln Memorial, the Secret Handshake is tapping into that lineage while exploiting the Mall’s own symbolic charge. In a city where monuments typically speak in bronze and granite, “A Throne Fit for a King” opts for a different register: a gleaming, participatory object that collapses grandeur into farce — and asks what, exactly, gets commemorated in public space.
