Donald Cunt and Trophy Boy posing together at Putnam Valley Park. All photos by Swiss Miss
A 436-acre Putnam Valley Park Donald Trump donated to the state of New York a decade ago has become the setting of a gloriously terrifying photo essay by Manhattan-based photographer Swiss Miss.
Miss heard about the neglected park while researching graffiti-laden places to shoot. When she stumbled upon the park, which isn’t listed on the official state park map website, she knew it would be the perfect location for something fun and creepy.
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That’s when Donald Cunt and Trophy Boy at Donaldo Dump Cruise Park was conceived.
“It was my personal way to say ‘Fuck Trump,’” she says of the gender-bending images and video, which feature two models named Donald Cunt and Trophy Boy.
Telling the GOP front-runner to fuck off wasn’t the only motivation. Miss says the park’s ten-year history of neglect and decay also played into the decision to use the park as the set for a photo shoot.
“The park was a present from Trump to New York in 2006 after his project of developing a golf [course] there fell apart. He got substantial tax rebates for that, but the park was left abandoned for years.”
According to LoHud.com, “Trump announced the gift at an April 2006 news conference atop Indian Hill, with his family at his side, and Trump Ice bottled water provided to those who gathered that morning under a catering tent.”
It’s these grandiose yet empty gestures that Swiss Miss thinks would be a hallmark of a Trump presidency.
“I thought it was a good representation of what would happen to the country if Trump was given governmental responsibilities.” says Swiss Miss “I wanted to make a photo shoot there to make fun of him and show how the park was before the clean up planned by Cuomo.”
Ever since Trump announced his presidential candidacy the land is receiving more attention and now Governor Andrew Cuomo is under pressure to fix it up. Plans include $125,000 to raze several derelict buildings on the site, fill in an abandoned swimming pool, and spruce up the grounds.
As of now there are still Trump signs at all of the park’s entrances. There’s even a giant sign on the Taconic Parkway directing motorists to the grounds, despite it not actually having basic amenities like a parking lot, benches, picnic tables, restroom facilities, marked trails, or a site map.
While the park might be the perfect place for a photo shoot, not everyone is happy about a state property displaying the Trump name. As many as 20 Democratic lawmakers have signed the “Anything but Trump Act” in an effort to remove his association with the public land and there’s a “Rename the Donald J. Trump State Park” petition on Change.org that has racked up over 2,000 signatures. There have even been suggestions to rename the park after Peter Salem, a black Muslim who fought with the Minutemen in the Revolutionary War.
In December 2015, Trump hinted that if the park is stripped of his name, he might pursue legal action to take the park back. Let’s hope he doesn’t get an opportunity to make the park “great again.”
To see more photos by Swiss Miss you can follow her on Instagram @SwissMissNYC
