The man behind the Big Trump Head

It is hard to miss Jim Blain on some morning commutes.

There he is near an important building, a gas station or an attraction, wearing a blue suit, white shirt and long red tie — as well as something you don’t see every day: an oversized paper-mache head of President Donald Trump.

Blain waves at passersby. Nearby is a sign that tracks the number of days since the Iran War started in late February as well as a placard on the cost of a gallon of gas, which rose from $2.69 to more than $4 late last month.

At every location, someone takes his photos, which are now shared daily on the Charleston City Paper’s social media channels. They’ve garnered hundreds of thousands of views.

Yes, the Big Trump Head has gone viral.

Now retired, Blain built a cell phone business

Blain, 74, has lived in the Charleston area for 46 years. He spent much of his career in the cell phone business. Starting in 1989 when car phones and bag phones were still common, he ran a series of stores called PhoneSmart before retiring in 2018. These days, he has found a much more unusual way to spend some mornings.

Some drivers honk. Some wave. Others give him the middle finger. But according to Blain, the positive reactions win by a landslide.

“The horn toots outnumber the f*ck yous,” said Blain of his unique form of protest. He estimated the ratio at about 10 to one.

Underneath the giant head and humor, however, is some serious motivation.

“Every day, we pay for Trump at the pump,” Blain said. “He really motivated me to do something.”

Blain said the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol was a turning point for him. He said he was disturbed by Trump’s actions surrounding the attack and what he sees as continued corruption and conflicts of interest.

“The second issue for me is the ongoing corruption,” Blain said. “If you knew the butcher had his thumb on the scale, you wouldn’t buy at that shop.”

Building the Big Trump Head

The Big Trump Head started with a balloon, some wet newspaper and a little help from someone Blain knows who had experience making piñatas. After the balloon was blown up, it got covered in paper-mache and eventually transformed into the oversized Trump likeness that now travels with Blain around the Charleston area.

The absurdity is intentional.

“Humor motivates people,” Blain said. “The number of smiles I get each day when people see this awkward-looking, inflated Trump head is tremendous.”

And getting a reaction has not been difficult.

Blain said people regularly stop to take selfies with him. One evening, he took the head to the Cistern at College of Charleston. With the area nearly empty, Blain and his wife began taking photos. Before long, two students appeared with a request: Could they get a picture, too?

Those encounters have become part of the fun, he said.

Mornings inside the head

A typical day when he appears with the Big Trump Head starts around 6:30 a.m. Blain tries to make it to a high-traffic roadway between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. to catch commuters heading to work.

There is one catch to spending the morning dressed as a president with a huge noggin: “About an hour inside the head is about all I can stand,” Blain said.

He went out less often during August because of the heat. But being inside the costume also gives Blain a unique view of his own protest. Small pinholes allow him to watch reactions from passing drivers.

“And that’s what’s so satisfying,” he said.

On faster roads, Blain estimates he might get a honk from one in 20 cars and a wave from about one in 10. A middle finger, he said, comes closer to one in 100. On S.C. Highway 41 where traffic moves more slowly, he hit what he called a “gem of a spot” — five people in a row took his picture.

Not every outing has gone quite as smoothly. Once while on Rifle Range Road in Mount Pleasant, Blain said someone called police because of where he parked. A community service officer arrived and quickly clarified the issue.

“‘Look, I’m not here about the politics,’ ” Blain recalled the officer saying. “‘You got a complaint about the car.’ ”

Blain moved it about 30 feet.

“I’m trying to be a constant reminder, as we move closer to the elections, that people can do something, have to do something and that they can do something,” he said.

What happens to the Big Trump Head after Election Day is still uncertain. Until then, the blue suit, white shirt, red tie and oversized head still have a few more morning commutes to make.

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