[8] In August 2010 the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced it had plans to build a container facility on the location and the monument would most likely have to be moved.

[9] However, Robert "Captain Bob" Terzi, a Bayonne taxi driver started an online petition to prevent the relocation.

[9] It was listed as one of the world's ugliest statues by Foreign Policy magazine,[12] while The New Yorker said that it looked like "a giant tea biscuit" from a distance.

[10] Pro Arts Jersey City called it "an insensitive, self-aggrandizing piece of pompousness by one of the world's blatant self-promoters".

[13] In response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the city of Bayonne had Vladimir Putin's name covered on the two plaques in the park.