Scott LoBaido is no stranger to getting angry in public.
The MAGA-preaching activist and Donald Trump supporter once threw pizza slices over Mayor Eric Adams’ City Hall fences, sparking a crackdown on coal-fired ovens.
He spilled fake blood outside Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office to denounce his progressive crime-fighting policies, and even posed with a fake electric chair bearing the words “Bring Me Back” outside a courthouse to lobby for the death penalty in New York.
But when the Staten Islander witnessed the horror of a would-be assassin’s bullet nearly killing Donald Trump on Saturday night, LoBaido didn’t take to the streets or resort to incendiary rhetoric on social media to express his grief and rage.
He grabbed a paintbrush.
“I was up all night painting,” an emotional LoBaido told Mailonline.com, having just ended a sleepless night painting his own version of the now iconic image of a bloodied, but defiant Trump, raising his fist in a show of strength and determination with the American flag in the background.
“It will be the most iconic image of our time,” said LoBaido about the work he has titled ‘Lucha’.
Artist Scott LoBaido titles his painting of Donald Trump: “Fight.” “It will be the most iconic image of our time,” he said.
Former U.S. President Donald J. Trump appears on the first night of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the Fiserv Forum. His first appearance since his assassination attempt on Saturday night in Butler, Pennsylvania.
When the Big Apple entertainer, whose controversial career has been marred by arrests for some of his daring actions, heard the news that Trump had been shot, he was shocked.
“I was horrified, I didn’t know what had happened,” said the patriotic portraitist, adding that the rage he felt drove him to his local studio to ease the pain with his palette.
And encourages all angry Republicans to do the same.
He felt the adrenaline and rage coursing through him. “You lose your mind,” LoBaido said, urging his fellow Republicans to harness that anger and channel it toward good.
“Use the First Amendment – it can save this country if everyone figures out how to use it creatively,” he stressed.
“I use this as therapy before I go out and do something stupid,” he said of his personal art therapy. “I just sit and think and my mind is occupied thinking about what I’m painting and why I’m painting it.”
The Trump-supporting artist is known for his depictions of the American flag. Pictured: LoBaido painting the Betsy Ross American flag in front of Nike headquarters in New York
LoBaido’s controversial art pieces include a guillotine with the words ‘BRING ME BACK’ written on it, suggesting he is in favour of capital punishment.
It probably saved a wall from getting hit and breaking my hand, he said with a laugh, adding that Trump supporters need to take a break.
‘I tell everyone to calm down and calm down. Let’s not get stupid.
“Whatever you want to do now, leave it until November 5,” he said, calling for change through the ballot box.
“Be productive,” she advised. “Get your 18-year-old nephew registered to vote, join poll watchers on Election Day, or get 20 parents together and join the school board,” she said.
“There are so many things people can do, using that right to use that brain instead of just sitting there in that rage doing nothing.”
Through tears, LoBaido said he learned to suppress any dangerous impulses by channeling them into his art.
“This is the blood of the innocent people of New York City who are being slaughtered because of District Attorney Bragg,” said Lobaido, a self-proclaimed patriot activist and artist, as he poured the fake blood.
“Thank God I’ve learned to use art as therapy and that stops me from doing stupid things. Don’t take drugs, create,” she said. “Art is the best therapy.”
Unsure of where his paintbrush would take him, the agitator said he suddenly knew exactly what to do when he saw the image of the man “who had just been touched by the hand of God,” he said, explaining that he believes it was a miracle that Trump’s life was spared.
“If you’re not religious, this will make you religious. This has never happened in the history of any shooting: missing by millimeters.”
“The image of this man – who has no f***ing fear – waking up with blood on his face, not even knowing what had happened to him, and with his fist raised” moved LoBaido to tears.
“So the beautiful images of that man who has no fear, of raising that fist in the air. It’s going to be the most iconic image of our time,” said LoBaido, who is the subject of the new documentary, “The Relentless Patriot,” which chronicles the artist’s exploits.
Scott LoBaido marched to the doors of New York City Hall before throwing slices of Margherita pizza at them in protest against a proposed new emissions law.
Pizzagate is the latest move by the Staten Islander, known for his right-wing political art and depictions of the American flag.
Though LoBaido, who said he worked 15 hours straight, fueled “by cigarettes and a glass of vodka,” mused on different versions, this was the most moving and the one that reflected the power of the 45th president, both mentally and physically.
“I think this is the most epic piece I’ve ever done,” he said of the image that will forever be etched in our consciousness, adding, “Because it will be the most epic image of our generation. It will be like the flag raising at Iwo Jima.”
A resounding chorus of support – and potential buyers – followed LoBaido’s posting of the newly painted portrait on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
Trump supporters and followers raved about the touching item and asked how to order it.
“I can’t wait to see this hanging in the oval,” one of them joked hopefully.