Skip to main content
Regional secretary with the National Education Union
The phenomenon of Trump effigies
KEITH FLETT writes on the traditions of political protests, groans, and dummies
Protesters place a large inflatable balloon in the likeness of President Donald Trump dressed in a Ku Klux Klan sheet across the street from Southwest Key Campbell, a shelter for children that have been separated from their parents, in Phoenix, Arizona, last week

THE decision by London Mayor Sadiq Khan to agree that a giant effigy of Donald Trump as a baby complete with nappy can be floated above central London when the “orange moron” — as he has been labelled — visits Britain has mostly been applauded.

One critic was, of course, Nigel Farage who continued his own tradition of being entirely ignorant about more or less everything by failing to spot that the parading (and sometimes burning) of effigies of unpopular figures is in fact a great British tradition.

Farage claimed that the crowd-funded balloon was the “biggest insult” to a US president ever.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
GUILTY OF POVERTY: Dinner time in St Pancras Workhouse, London, October 2011 / Pic: Unknown/CC
Features / 26 July 2025
26 July 2025

KEITH FLETT looks at the long history of coercion in British employment laws

Police officers watch as people take part in a national march for Palestine on Whitehall in central London, January 18, 2025
Features / 10 July 2025
10 July 2025

The government cracking down on something it can’t comprehend and doesn’t want to engage with is a repeating pattern of history, says KEITH FLETT

Prime Minister Tony Blair welcomes American President George W Bush to the first meeting of the G8 Summit at the Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland, July 7, 2005
Features / 26 June 2025
26 June 2025

While Hardie, MacDonald and Wilson faced down war pressure from their own Establishment, today’s leadership appears to have forgotten that opposing imperial adventures has historically defined Labour’s moral authority, writes KEITH FLETT

Former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn speaking at the People's Assembly Against Austerity protest in central London, June 7, 2025
Labour’s loss / 12 June 2025
12 June 2025

10 years ago this month, Corbyn saved Labour from its right-wing problem, and then the party machine turned on him. But all is not lost yet for the left, says KEITH FLETT

Similar stories
Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage speaking during a campaign event at Stafford Showground, Stafford, whilst campaigning for this week's local elections, April 30, 2025
Politics / 8 May 2025
8 May 2025

Reform’s rise speaks to a deep crisis in Establishment parties – but relies on appealing to social and economic grievances the left should make its own, argues NICK WRIGHT

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. Photo: Danny Lawson/PA Wire
Immigration / 24 April 2025
24 April 2025

The left must avoid shouting ‘racist’ and explain that the socialist alternative would benefit all 

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage speaking during the Reform UK
Features / 11 March 2025
11 March 2025
NICK WRIGHT examines how Farage’s party has attracted five distinct voter tribes with incompatible views on economics, immigration and state intervention — presenting both a challenge and opportunity for left organising
FAKE LABEL: Reform UK leader Nigel Farage speaks at the part
Features / 26 October 2024
26 October 2024
Farage's party is a political machine deeply tied to the interests of US big business, writes PHIL KATZ in the first of a series of features on this growing force in British politics