Wednesday, July 24, 2024

New bobbleheads feature post-assassination attempt Donald Trump with fist raised, bandaged ear

By Jesse Scheckner on July 24, 2024

Two new bobbleheads of Donald Trump in the seconds and days after an assassination attempt on the former President are now available for preorder from the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum.

One figurine shows Trump in his now-iconic "Fight" pose, with his fist raised in the air and a bloody face after a failed sniper's bullet grazed his ear at a rally in Pennsylvania this month.

The other features him wearing the oversized ear bandage that attendees of the Republican National Convention adopted and wore this past weekend to show their support for him.

Phil Sklar, the Bobblehead Hall's co-founder and CEO, said he's received "a flood of requests" for figurines depicting the two moments.

Images of the actual bobbleheads aren't yet available, but Sklar shared renderings of the two semi-shaky statuettes to give prospective buyers an idea of what they'll look like. Each bobblehead will be individually numbered and only available through the Bobblehead Hall's online store.

They're going for $30 apiece, plus a flat-rate shipping charge of $8 per order.

"We have received a flood of requests for bobbleheads to commemorate these two historic images that are sure to be among the most iconic moments in history," Sklar said.

"Political bobbleheads have grown in popularity since debuting in the 1960s, and bobbleheads commemorating historic moments like these have been among the most popular."

*Renderings of the two to-be-produced Donald Trump bobbleheads. Image via National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum.*

The new bobbleheads will join others the Bobblehead Hall has sold of Trump, including him at the Resolute Desk holding up a Sharpie-altered map of Hurricane Dorian's path, posing for a mugshot at Atlanta's Fulton County Jail in August, meeting "Rocket Man" Kim Jong Un and a limited-sale figurine of him in an orange prison jumpsuit with hand shackles.

Myriad other politically themed figurines are also for sale on the Bobblehead Hall site, including Joe Biden on a bicycle, a masked and visibly cold Bernie Sanders on Inauguration Day in January 2021, and Gov. Ron DeSantis behind a Florida-branded podium.

A 20-year-old gunman fired eight shots in under six seconds at Trump during a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. One shot struck the former President's ear on July 13, hitting the former President's ear before he ducked out of the way and Secret Service members rushed in to provide him cover.

The Secret Service quickly neutralized the gunman, but the agency fell under scrutiny for the security lapse and slowness to respond to ample warnings about the sniper's presence outside the rally.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on Tuesday, one day after she appeared before a congressional committee and was berated for hours by both Republicans and Democrats. She called the assassination attempt the Secret Service's "most significant operational failure" in decades.

The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum in Milwaukee. It claims to have 10,000 bobblehead varieties from around the world, including life-size figures.