A Minnesota team won't be at the US National Snow Sculpting Championship this week after two of its proposed pieces - including one depicting President Donald Trump - were denied due to political overtones and inappropriateness.

The team - five-time state champs Dusty Thune, Kelly Thune and David Aichinger - had created a snow sculpture of Trump at last year's event in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, that showed Trump's hair and neck as a twisted pile of feces featuring his tweets.

It was called 'Peep' and meant to evoke the president's vulgar comments about African countries.

The state champ team under the name House of Thune decided to stick with the theme that worked for them the previous year and submitted a proposal called 'Statue of Tyranny', which depicted Trump as the Statue of Liberty with a child in a cage beneath him.

That proposal was denied by event organizers who had clarified the rules early on, warning sculptors to stay away from controversial and political designs because the event is family friendly.

Dusty Thune said art should provoke conversation and that's what they are doing.

'I'm a little disgusted that they would censor art over profits. We won our state competition in order to get to nationals,' Thune said.

Event organizer Don Berg said they had complaints last year and wanted to make sure the same thing didn't happen this year.

It's the first time they've run across this kind of situation in the 34 years of the event, Berg added.

A Minnesota snow sculpting team won't be competing in this weekend's national championship because event organizers denied their proposal for a sculpture of President Donald Trump as the Statue of Liberty with a child in a cage sitting beneath him (above)

Last year, five-time state champs Kelly Thune, David Aichinger and Dusty Thune (above) created a snow sculpture of Trump that showed his hair and neck as a twisted pile of feces

Dusty Thune expressed frustration that his team's proposals were denied for being too political this year, saying he thinks art should provoke conversation. The competitor is seen next to his winning snow sculpture 'Turtle Island' on Monday in Falcon Heights, Minnesota

The team's towering figure from last year's competition (above) was surrounded by a wall and accented by the president's tweets

'We are trying to figure out those balances and make sure we don't ruin what we have as an event,' he said.

He was 'shocked' that Thune thought he put profits above all and disagreed with the assertion, explaining the event is run by a non-profit.

After the team's first proposal was turned down, the sculptors submitted 'Descension', which depicted people being moved down an escalator into a gear, which Thune said explored the process of self-destruction through greed and loss of empathy.

Berg said the imagery was too extreme and not family friendly.

Fifteen teams from 12 states gather in Wisconsin to compete to be named the best in the nation.

A team of Minnesota sculptors who have been to nationals before will take their place, Thune said.

Each team gets a cylinder of snow eight feet across and nine feet high to carve with saws, axes, files, scaffolding, shovels and other homemade implements.

The entries will be judged Saturday on creativity, technique and message. Competitors choose the winner.

Alaska sculptor Matt Lloyd, also a graphic artist, said he believes in the freedom of artistic expression but doesn't agree that the national competition is the place for Thune's political beliefs.

'We always try to appeal to everybody and anything political is not going to appeal to kids,' Lloyd said.

Thune said their sculptures generally weren't political in past years, but they felt compelled to shift gears in response to some of the Trump administration's actions.

As far as next year, Thune's team won the state competition in Minnesota again this year, making them eligible for the national competition in Wisconsin again in 2020.

'It will probably be political if that's still what's going on in the world today because we have something to say we're not going to sit back and sit down and be quiet,' Thune said.

On Saturday, 15 teams from 12 states will compete to be named the best in the nation at the US National Snow Sculpting Championship in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin