this was intended as a mockery?

yup. There was lots of reporting about it at the time. The left thought it was some hilarious "own" because they think masculinity and strong men are "toxic"

Here's an example: https://people.com/politics/donald-trump-emperor-statue-in-italy-carnevale/

Keep in mind, these are the same people who think Starship Troopers is some brilliant takedown of fascism. If you start questioning them about it thought, they retreat to meaningless bullshit like, "JuST lOOk aT tHE uNIfOrmS!!"

I'm sure you've seen the study that found that leftists care more about inanimate rocks and motionless trees than they do their own kin.

All of these things are related. Leftists are broken, broken people.