Donald Trump, Smartphone in Hand, Makes Wax Figure Debut in United Arab Emirates
A new wax figure museum in the United Arab Emirates debuted 60 statues of celebrities and leaders Wednesday, including former President Donald Trump, the Associated Press reported.
The 75-year-old Trump's wax rendering is seen in a suit and tie, seated at a desk while checking his smartphone. The presidential seal can be seen on the wall above the statue, and former first lady Melania Trump is standing next to him in a blue dress, her go-to look during her husband's 2016 presidential run, AP reported.
"He looks very real, but he's not quite orange enough," said Marwa al-Haddad, a 27-year-old who took a selfie with Trump's figure while attending the museum's ceremonial opening.
The debut of the former president's figure in the UAE is perhaps fitting because the country houses the only Trump-branded golf course in the region and several rulers with whom the former president developed affable ties during his administration, AP reported.
The new museum in Dubai is the newest addition to a global collection of tourist-friendly Madame Tussauds galleries, where visitors can view a wide range of celebrities and public figures in lifelike wax renderings.
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.
The lavish waxworks temple located on a small artificial island off Dubai unveiled a range of figures, from a sultry Kylie Jenner to a beaming Chinese President Xi Jinping, along with a handful of Bollywood dance stars in various dance poses.
The wax figures at Dubai's Madame Tussauds were each created over six months by a team of 20 artists at the London studio, where wax was poured into metal frames, then sculpted with clay. Each strand of real human hair was methodically implanted using needles.
During his presidency, Trump was considered a close friend in the capital of Abu Dhabi. Gulf Arab sheikhdoms welcomed Trump's policies in the region, including his harder-line on Iran, as he pulled America out of Tehran's landmark 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. In Dubai, the flashy Trump International Golf Club, developed by DAMAC Properties, sprawls from the center of a luxurious collection of upscale apartments and villas.
To design the collection, the Madame Tussauds team conducted an extensive population survey to figure out who potential visitors would most want to see. There is no President Joe Biden currently on display, but a company spokesman said he could be featured at some point in the future.
