Trump Float in Italy: Photos, Videos & Meaning of ‘God Emperor’ Float

A float depicting President Donald Trump as a “God Emperor” was displayed in a parade in Italy, and it’s already getting national attention. Everyone’s debating the float’s meaning while sharing photos and videos on social media. Here’s a look at the float and what it means.

First, a video:

The Trump float appeared in the 2019 Carnevale di Viareggio. The float had an animatronic body and it was pretty advanced.

YouTube

YouTube

Yes, those are Twitter birds coming from the hilt of his sword.

And the likeness is pretty striking.

Some people absolutely love the float and believe it’s honoring Trump.

Others point to Trump floats in the same parade in previous years and say that it’s satirical and not honoring him.

Trump’s costume in the float is a direct depiction of the Space Marines in the game Warhammer 40k.

This next video provides translated captions for the news story about the Trump float. (You may need to click on ‘captions’ on YouTube to see them.) The subtitles were provided by The Thinkery on YouTube, and they explain the float’s meaning.

Here are excerpts of the translation.

“Here’s the carriage, maybe the only first-class one to tackle politics. … This is great, immense, enormous figure by Fabrizio Galli, who wanted to remind us of what I mentioned before, Trump’s presidency and the anniversary of the Moon landing, of those astronauts that in 1978 made our hearts skip a beat. … And yes, Fabrizio Galli again brings forward a political theme, tied to international politics. Last year he won third place with his ‘Crystal Peace,’ which referenced the threat of nuclear war and the US-North Korea dispute. This year he brings this monumentally large carriage dedicated to the character of Trump wearing this sort of sci-fi armor, yeah? It’s a Trump who even wants to … reach Mars with this Space Marine army. … This armor that Trump’s wearing is referencing a character of a 3D sci-fi game called Warhammer… I can even see a laurel crown, resembling Rome’s own Caesar. So it’s combining Roman tradition with this sci-fi character, and this frowning Trump wants to even conquer space, conquer Mars…”

At 2:12 in the video you see someone also wearing a Trump face walking in front of the Trump float. Here are more excerpts of what the translated captions read:

“The carriage is built around the central figure, there are no secondary subjects, only a very imposing central subject … He’s moving, animating, turning around, and it’s very detailed… Much space is given to the actors as well who are playing these Space Marines. By the way, he took Trump’s most frequent expression, the one we see on TV. Well yes, compared to the previous chubby, sly Trump that wanted to go to the Moon, this Trump is a threatening one who looks toward the future with a serious gaze, very threatening let’s say. … It looks like it’s strutting among the crowd… Here we are in the middle of all these warriors in front of the majestic Donald Trump…”

In an interview during the news report, Fabrizio Galli, who made the float, talked about the meaning of the sword: “I think I have reached one of the highest points of my career… Well no doubt, that is he brandishes this weapon of the economy, it says ‘Dazi Vostri’ (approx. ‘here’s your f***ing tariffs’), it’s a joke, but in fact he’s trying to destroy nations with the economy instead of nuclear missiles. This is one of the strongest actions, let’s say, that powerful people like Trump can use.”

On Twitter, some people said it was a play on the expression “cazzi vostri,” meaning “none of your f***ing business,” Time reported.

In summary, this float is referencing the Warhammer 40K game and a theoretical desire of Trump to “conquer” Mars, according to the news report about the float. (It should be noted that not every interpretation in the news report appears to be accurate. They said Trump was made to look like Caesar, but it appears that the character from Warhammer 40,000 that he represents also looked like Caesar.) According to the float’s creator, the words on the sword translate roughly to “Here’s your ‘f***ing tariffs.” Galli didn’t explain the Twitter reference on the sword, however.

The float was part of the Carnevale Di Viargeggio in Italy, Time reported. About 600,000 people attended the parade. The parade’s website called the Trump float “Master-Drone.” The description read: “The dominant male par-excellence has arrived, democratically, and is now here, among us. The Master-Drone flies over the Viareggio boardwalk as we prepare to pay the price.”

Some people love the float and believe it shows Trump conquering fake news:

Others just want the float to stop showing up in their feed.

So although it appears that the float’s creator did intend at least some of the elements of his float to have a negative connotation, many people still love the float and are sharing it with their own interpretation. Perhaps this is like symbolism in books, where the meaning eventually takes on a life of its own.