Visit Rapid City to Unveil President Trump Statue
Public is Invited to Meet the Latest Addition to the City of Presidents
Visit Rapid City is unveiling the latest addition to the City of Presidents – a bronze statue of President Donald J. Trump – on May 3 at the Elks Theatre, located at 512 6th St. in Rapid City.
“The City of Presidents is a vital part of Rapid City and a story of American history,” said Ally Formanek, interim CEO for Visit Rapid City. “We look forward to introducing the latest installment of this art project to the public.”
The following is an overview of the event:
- Time: 3-5 p.m.
- Doors open at 2:30 p.m.
- Bags may not be larger than 4.5” x 6.5” (no larger than your hand); clear bags are allowed (both are subject to search)
- 3-4 p.m.: Speakers to include Laurie Sutterer with Visit Rapid City, U.S. Representative Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), Rapid City Mayor Jason Salamun, Richard Purdue (son of the founder of City of Presidents, Don Purdue) Jim Maher (artist who sculpted the statue), the Bradsky Family and the Patton Family (statue donors)
- 4-5 p.m.: Photo opportunity with statue
- The event is open to the public, with seats available on a first come first served basis.
The City of Presidents was founded in 2020 and 2025 marks its 25th anniversary. A privately funded nonpartisan art project and trail of history, Visit Rapid City is responsible for the promotion and management of the presidents.
President Trump’s statue was commissioned after his term ended in 2021 and was completed before he was elected to a second term in November 2024. The statue was created by Jim Maher, a Rapid City artist.
Learn more about Visit Rapid City at VisitRapidCity.com.
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In today’s RC Journal is a post titled, “Protests”. It continues with, “Impeach, convict, remove peaceful rally/protest, 2-3:30 p.m., Rapid City. Start at City Hall, then walk to Main Street Square for the unveiling of Trump’s statue. Do not engage with disrupters. Elders and people with disabilities encouraged to join the rally at Main Street Square. Organized by Indivisible Rapid City. Indivisible Rapid City is hosting weekly protests April 12-May17 against the Trump administration and its policies.”
You can be certain “Indivisible Rapid City” will most certainly disrupt the unveiling of the newest presidential statue of the City of Presidents.
I think normal people are getting pretty fed up with these types of “regularly scheduled protests”.
so they want to impeach Trump and replace him with Vance.
Something tells me they haven’t thought this through
They see Trump dismantling the country, and his high placed confederates in Congress keeping the people’s power and prerogatives utterly comatose through the pretense that Trump’s “4-D Chess” snd wiley “weaving” are signs of excellence the US has never seen before. WRONG. The tariff scam has been exposed and debunked and still the train barrels forward to economic ruin with Congress Republicans sitting on their dead butts. Rand Paul should have been fully supported on the vote to END Trump’s made – up “crisis.” These people protesting don’t know what else they can do in the face of this zombie Congress.
Trump is doing exactly what he promised to do and the majority of voters elected him to do.
The people who want to see him impeached had better like Vance, who will mop the floor with Leftist TV interviewers.
Wrong. The voters were shown softball interviews with Trump on Fox – they were told his dictator-routine at rallies was him “making the libs crazy” – talk radio assured Maga that their grandkid-loving ‘Everyman’ was a patriotic genius who would fix everything and restore the USA of the mid 20th Century – a postwar economic powerhouse. (This is virtually impossible to achieve in the modern world, even if Trump knew how to run an economy which he doesn’t.)
They didn’t vote for ruining our reputation around the world. They didn’t vote for new records to be set on financial destruction. They didn’t vote for Musk and his nerd squad to own and sift everyone’s private data. They didn’t vote for Trump to sidestep every law pertaining to limits on presidential powers. They did however actually vote for a neutered Congress majority that does nothing for fear of primary attacks. This inaction will cost everyone at some point. Again, Rand Paul was right, the cowards who ignored him were not.
Also – Vance is a limp noodle. This whole coup is built on TRUMP – nobody else can pick up the reins of power if Trump is removed. It all collapses. If Trump COULD be removed the GOP would already have done it. They don’t want his lie-based power thing to stop because it benefits them and they lose it if anything happens to Trump. That’s the long and short of it. Toby Doeden standing in a church evoking his anointing by God to run for Governor is actually innovative – Doeden wants to explore how to generate snd use Trumplike power by a different undiscovered path. That shows Doeden at least understands who Trump really is, and that he’s personally powerful, in a way that can’t be transferred to another. If Trump is removed, limp-noodle Vance is the least of our worries.
actually, the prospect of an impeachment & conviction has created a fantasy scenario in my head, of what that would look like: Chuck Schumer in front of dozens of TV cameras (his happy place,) congratulating himself, babbling about how “it’s the end of a nightmare,” and is interrupted by JD Vance, who tells him “hold my beer.”
yes, that would be something to watch
Vance lmao oh no. He’s a nothing.
RE: statues – – we have good presidents and bad presidents – but all the statues are good statues. Yay City of Presidents. Let’s not dawdle on honoring Stumbles Biden, or a second statue of Strumpbles Trump while he’s still in office because we can’t be sure he’s ever leaving.
There is a principled perspective to consider here – and some will struggle with it. As a town, Rapid City honors former presidents on the various street corners – that’s ok. But as a community, what kind of values do they want to honor? So Trump, just like any many who has served as President, is entitled to the space. But when you put that statue up there, it represents something more than the fact he was President. That statue also represents a convicted felon. And it also represents an adjudicated sex offender. Those are indisputable facts. So does a community turn a blind eye to these two facts? And where do you draw the line on behaviors that are unacceptable? If a President committed murder, do they still honor him or her with a Rapid City corner? We have changed names of monuments and landmarks that once honored dishonorable men. Why? Because we felt it was wrong to honor dishonorable men.
Hey, City of Presidents follows all rules of statue creation etiquette. Nixon, who resigned, is seated. There was no debate about his role in the Watergate scandal, or other non-essentials. No handwringing over Teapot Dome with Harding, or support of slavery for any pre-Lincoln president. I personally don’t like Trump being a convicted felon, or his successfully stopping trials that would have demolished his 2nd shot at office. He got elected by the rules we follow, lost by those rules in 2020 (regardless of Trump’s lie about a “stolen election”), and inexplicably won by those rules in 2024. As stated above, since were not even sure there will BE a future election, we should get right on it, and do the Biden and Trump II statues asap.