Trump, Clinton haunt US Halloween display

A Styrofoam model of a hot air-blowing Donald Trump and another of a toothy Hillary Clinton riding the Democratic Party's donkey mascot are among the skeletons and zombies in a Halloween display that has become an attraction and is stopping traffic in a Connecticut town.

With a little more than a month to go before the US elections on Nov. 8, history professor Matt Warshauer of West Hartford is using his annual Halloween extravaganza to make a political statement.

Warshauer built an 8-foot-high (2.4-meter-high) cardboard version of Republican presidential candidate Trump's proposed US-Mexican border wall, complete with models of armed guards, in front of his house.

"It's a crazy presidential election where it seems politics are out of control," said Warshauer, who teaches at Central Connecticut State University. "I am making a statement about both parties, the Republican and the Democratic party, but my primary concern is Donald Trump as a president."

Warshauer erected the display on Saturday but said on Tuesday that he had been planning it for months.

One of the skeletons holds a sign saying, "We were all immigrants," while another reads, "We are not criminals," a reference to Trump's proposals to curb illegal immigration.

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US presidential campaigns have often accented the activities leading up to and on Halloween on Oct. 31, with sales of rubber masks of the candidates or holiday parades featuring election-themed floats. And this year is no exception.

Warshauer, who has built Halloween displays for more than a decade, includes an annual political message, not just for the presidential contests that fall every four years.

Last year, a model of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, thatched huts and a replica of a downed helicopter marked the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War. Earlier exhibits included one with a cardboard coliseum and Roman soldiers and another with a Civil War theme.

"I hope people take it in the spirit of Halloween, that I am having a little fun and making a political statement," Warshauer said of this year's offering.