New York City officials say they think President Donald Trump needs to “be reminded Black Lives Matter,” and they are planning on installing a mural outside his Trump Tower building in Manhattan to remind him.
The New York Daily News reports that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s (D) spokesperson Julia Arredondo said, “The president is a disgrace to the values we cherish in New York City.”
She added, “He can’t run or deny the reality we are facing, and any time he wants to set foot in the place he claims is his hometown, he should be reminded Black Lives Matter.”
The city reportedly will paint the words “Black Lives Matter” in front of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue sometime before July 4.
Earlier in June, de Blasio said the city would paint the phrase “Black Lives Matter” throughout the city.
“It’s time to do something officially representing this city to recognize the power of the fundamental idea, Black Lives Matter — the idea that so much American history has wrongly renounced but now must be affirmed,” he said on June 9.
He added that the words would be painted on streets in all of the city’s five boroughs. He also said he would call for streets to be renamed.
“What will be clear [is] the street name and on the streets of our city is that message that now this city must fully, fully deeply feel, and this nation must as well, that black lives matter,” he added.
The decision comes after Washington, D.C., installed a similar mural near the White House on June 5.
The mayor of Washington, DC, just ordered a 35-foot-wide Black Lives Matter mural to be painted behind the White House: https://t.co/VdMeijJzO9 pic.twitter.com/WuUpK5ZNca
— Artnet (@artnet) June 5, 2020
Albany, New York — the state’s capital — also installed a Black Lives Matter mural on its streets.
#HAPPENINGNOW: Lark St. in Albany is closed while the #InOurOwnVoices group paints #BlackLivesMatter on the street. It’s between Lancaster St. & Hudson Ave pic.twitter.com/onnRSOv9XB
— Leanne DeRosa (@LeanneDeRosa7) June 9, 2020
The cities began painting the words in the wake of protests against police violence and racism that erupted around the country after George Floyd’s death.