Fox Business anchor Stuart Varney is outraged over an offer by New York City’s Guggenheim museum to loan Donald Trump a working solid gold toilet, telling his audience Friday that the suggestion was an insult to Trump and the dignity of the office of president.
“It is in fact a direct insult to the president and the first lady. It was a deliberate insult,” said Varney. “This work of art had been displayed at a public restroom at the Guggenheim and it had been used by thousands of people,” he added.
Varney — who is British — insisted Americans would agree with his indignation.
I suppose you could dismiss this as kind of tongue and cheek humor, but I don’t take it that way and I don’t think most American will be amused,” he said. “This is how the New York elites treat this presidency, with contempt.”
The whole imbroglio got going when President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump requested the Guggenheim loan them a Van Gough in their collection to hang in the White House living quarters.
Trump is deeply unpopular is his home city and museum curator Nancy Spector declined his request, but suggested that the Guggenheim would be willing to loan him a working solid gold toilet.
The original story was first reported by the Washington Post on Thursday.
The piece, currently installed on the Museum’s fifth floor is the work of contemporary artist Maurizio Cattelan, and is intended to satirize overconsumption. In her email to the White House Spector said Cattelan would be eager to have the piece installed at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.