Trump Troll maker
The guy behind a Kickstarter campaign for a Trump doll has another idea. It involves Vladimir Putin.
Chuck Williams’ crude sculpture of President Donald Trump as a troll became the most-funded Kickstarter campaign in Wisconsin last year.
The goal was to raise $38,000 and make about 3,000 of the troll dolls. After national media attention sent the campaign into the stratosphere, Williams raised $438,737.
That makes Williams’ Kickstarter both the most-funded and the most-supported campaign in the state out of 3,748. The next-most popular campaign — a card game called The Manhattan Project — has around half as many backers.
Williams hopes lightning will strike twice, as he’s in the midst of a campaign for his newest doll — featuring the image of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Williams, a sculptor by trade, said he has his fingers crossed that the latest campaign will raise his $50,000 goal.
“This one is more conceptdriven, more artistic in its concept than what I did originally,” he said.
As of Thursday, more than $33,000 had been raised with 15 days to go. The Putin troll is masked with a beard and red “Make America Great Again” hat.
“I felt it was a bookend to the story of the 2016 election with the Russian presence,” he said.
The original Trump version was the product of Williams’ reaction to the results of the presidential election.
“After Trump won, I was devastated,” he said. “I came down to my shop and started sculpting a meanspirited sculpture of Trump as a troll. He’s such a Twitter troll.”
From his basement studio in Rhinelander, the internet sensation was born.
“It was bright radiant orange with ugly, orange-blonde hair,” Williams said. “I had no concept of ‘Hey I’m going to make this and sell.’ I was doing this just kind of to insult this guy. I was so devastated by his win.
“I just sculpted it to kind of blow off some steam after the election,” Williams said. “I posted a couple photos on Facebook, and people liked it. My wife, Lynne, said, ‘OK, you need to put this up on Kickstarter right now.’ ”
Williams said his wife had a gut feeling the Trump design could go viral. The campaign launched in February 2017. A legal issue with NBCUniversal about the use of the troll imagery briefly paused the campaign. It was resolved, and the campaign finished its final few days.
Williams made about 50 resin casts of the original troll for Kickstarter supporters. The rest are vinyl dolls manufactured in China, he said. People across the U.S. and the world have bought the dolls. He’s sold nearly 20,000 Trump trolls in all.
Williams has a warehouse of the dolls in California, selling them online for $25. “We’ve been selling briskly,” he said.