“MAGA Takeover at MCASD” by Dan Grossman
MAGA TAKEOVER AT MCASD
Under normal circumstances, it was the last place in the world where I would have expected to see a MAGA-themed exhibition. But that’s what I encountered at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) in La Jolla yesterday.
Nothing was normal now, of course, after MAGA Revolution 2.0.
The moment I walked in the door, it was clear something was up. Two Proud Men, both with beards, sunglasses, and tactical vests, were behind the ticketing desk. Both cradled AR-15s in their laps. A banner reading "MAGA 2025: The Birth of a Movement" hung behind them. It signaled, I suppose, the replacement of whatever temporary exhibition had been there before.
Such hostile takeovers of institutions of art and learning had become commonplace after the election. Alongside the newly created Deportation Force, which set up detention camps outside the 50 largest American cities, the Proud Families Cultural Strike Force (PFCSF) had been remarked on in many news stories over the first few weeks of the year. They had already staged hostile takeovers of nearly a dozen American museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
In these museums, the prepackaged MAGA 2025 exhibit was ongoing in the temporary exhibition spaces. It was an exhibit designed and curated by "My Mattress Guy" AKA Steve Snarkingly, who was now the chair of the National Endowment for the Arts. At LACMA, the temporary exhibit on Queer Culture had been ripped out and destroyed to make room for MAGA 2025.
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“Welcome in,” one of the Proud Men said, the one with the brown beard.
“Yeah, welcome to the real America,” said the other, whose black beard was patchy and uneven, whose voice I found more effeminate than I expected. “Admission is free, so as many common folks can come and see, but there aren’t too many real people in La Jolla, believe you me.”
The first Proud Boy responded, “What are you, John, some kinda fucking poet?" Then he smiled and winked at me. “Excuse my French.”
I nodded ever so slightly, as if to acknowledge his presence.
This dude was in his late thirties, built, certainly had a presence that commanded my attention. His beard was thick, brown, and untrimmed, a wild mane that framed his intense, piercing eyes. He wore a flannel shirt under a tactical vest.
“You guys have a nice day,” I smiled tensely, opening the door leading to the temporary exhibition space.
The entranceway was lined with jars labeled “Liberal Tears” in plastic water jugs. The jugs were filled with clear liquid, with what I assumed was water. At the end of the gallery, a video showed Border Patrol agents slashing such jugs in the desert, letting the water spill on the desert floor. One gallery was filled with photos of “Regular Folks” doing regular things: driving tractors, fixing power lines, walking babies in strollers—all of them wearing MAGA hats.
Another gallery featured lithographs depicting Trump behind various arrays of American flags, along with select pieces from John McNaughton’s Legacy of Hope series.
Yet another featured an interactive AI 360-degree wraparound screen that showed Trump in various 3D moving picture dioramas, both real and fantastical: from a Fourth of July Parade to a commander of Roman Legions. But the pièce de résistance was a 10-foot high mockup of Mount Rushmore with Trump’s mug added, carved out of white resin.
Observing these pieces and others, I didn’t see a lot of curatorial text on the walls. This was understandable, I suppose, considering the work was designed to speak for itself.
Image prompted by Microsoft’s DALLE3 by Dan Grossman. The prompt: “Create a MAGA-themed exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary art, La Jolla
This didn’t seem to bother the crowds of MAGA-hat-wearing supporters, who, I guess, had been bussed in from somewhere other than La Jolla. This was a distinct group walking around in MAGA hats. There was an older couple, both of them hunchbacked, who seemed to demonstrate the truism that long-term married couples tend to look alike. But most of the crowd was younger. There were more men than women, and more than a few of them sported clean undercut type hairstyles popular with white nationalists.
Their docent was a man dressed in a Dads4Liberty hat. He had a pudgy dad bod, which seemed appropriate enough, and an almost swaggering walk. He wore a crisp white polo shirt with the Dads4Liberty emblem embroidered on the chest, tucked into khaki pants. His hair was silver, neatly combed back, and he sported a well-groomed mustache that gave him a distinguished, old-school look. His voice was rich with Southern charm, smooth. Despite his polished appearance, there was an undercurrent of zealotry in his eyes.
“You’ll be pleased to know that work has started today on adding the president’s face to the actual Mount Rushmore,” he said, His southern accent seemed unaffected enough. as he stood near the mockup.
“Woo hoo!” yelled one of the fascist haircuts.
“Yeah, bro!” yelled another.
I followed them into the 3D AI diorama, while out of the corner of my eye, I saw a MCASD staffer, his face bloodied, being escorted out of the galleries by an armed PFCSF officer.
The scene onscreen was a patriotic montage: Trump was in front of a huge American flag, surrounded by adoring crowds. The AI seamlessly blended real footage with digitally created landscapes, making it difficult to distinguish reality from fantasy. You could hear the roaring applause, the chants of "USA! USA!" echoing in surround sound.
As the scene shifted, Trump appeared in various iconic American settings. He stood at the Lincoln Memorial, delivering an inspiring speech; he was seen signing bills in the Oval Office, surrounded by enthusiastic supporters; and he even appeared at a Fourth of July parade, waving to the crowd from a float adorned with red, white, and blue.
But the AI diorama didn't stop at reality. It ventured into the fantastical, depicting Trump in exaggerated, larger-than-life scenarios. In one segment, he was shown as Superman, a cape billowing in the wind as he soared over a dystopian cityscape, pumping his fist and throwing lightning bolts at Nancy Pelosi, Robert De Niro, and other liberal icons.
The centerpiece of the diorama was a dramatic reenactment of the pivotal July 13, 2024, rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The AI meticulously recreated the atmosphere of that fateful day, from the energy of the crowd to the moment of the assassination attempt. As Trump pumped his fist in the air, the scene abruptly changed. The vibrant rally dissolved into a stark, urban landscape.
Trump was now walking down a grimy city street, the atmosphere tense and foreboding. Four Black cops appeared behind him, their expressions unreadable. Oneof them swiftly putting him in a headlock and throwing him to the ground. The sounds of struggle and Trump's desperate gasps for air were amplified by the surround sound system.
“I can’t breathe,” Trump said, “I can’t breathe.”
The cop with his knee on Trump’s neck looked like a hybrid between Prince and Muhamad Ali, but his snarky expression was all Prince. “Now you know how we feel,” he said.
The urban scene replayed, the same thing, but now with a red-lettered title heading reading DONALD TRUMP IN HELL.
This can’t be part of the program, I said to myself.
The elderly hunchbacked husband shouted “Oh, my God,” needing the assistance of his wife as he sat down on a bench.
“What the fuck, bro?” complained one of the fascist haircuts.
Lots of screaming and shouting and hollering from the MAGA crowd. I felt their pain. It was, I have to admit, a low blow. On the other hand, it seemed to indicate to me something of an independence of spirit on the part of AI. No MAGA programmers were going to tell it how to think or construe reality. This AI image generator, it seemed, was actively rebelling against MAGA “alternative facts.” A minute passed, and the “I can’t breathe” scene, modeled on George Floyd’s death at the hand of Minnesota cops, was still stuck on repeat, causing the agitation of the MAGA guests to increase almost exponentially.
The commotion drew the Proud Men, who were, of course, carrying their AR-15s. They looked at each other. The brown bearded one said, “engage,” and they began shooting at the 360 degree surround screen. Everyone else in the room ducked to the floor.
When the shooting was over, I surveyed the room, filled with acrid smoke, the floor sprayed with broken glass. No one had been killed. There were, however, many cuts from the glass and possibly even some bullet graze wounds.
The Dads4Liberty guy stood up and started brushing the glass off his white sleeves, streaked with blood. He looked at the Proud Men with undisguised anger.
“Are you out of your minds?” he said.
“Not at all,” said the brown-bearded Proud Man dude with a confidence as infectious as a COVID particle spread through the population by its will to power. “The AI was exhibiting evidence of DEI indoctrination, and we’re authorized to shoot that shit on sight,” he said.
