De Blasio helps paint ‘Black Lives Matter’ outside Trump Tower
NEW YORK — New York City began painting “Black Lives Matter” in large yellow letters on the street outside Trump Tower on Thursday, the latest flareup in a yearslong feud between President Trump, who rose to fame as a Manhattan real estate developer, and Mayor Bill de Blasio, who once sought to replace him.
“Black lives matter in our city, and Black lives matter in the United States of America,” de Blasio said Thursday, before joining city workers and activists in spreading schoolbus yellow paint on Fifth Avenue, between 56th and 57th streets, in Manhattan.
“Let’s show Donald Trump what he does not understand. Let’s paint it right in front of his building for him.”
Since winning the presidential election in 2016, Trump has increasingly clashed with officials in his former home state, including not only de Blasio but also Manhattan’s district attorney, who issued a subpoena for eight years of Trump’s business and personal tax records.
Thursday’s public art project was announced last month, and city officials have presented its location as a direct rebuke of Trump, who has repeatedly denigrated those protesting against systemic racism and police brutality in recent weeks.
“The president is a disgrace to the values we cherish in New York City,” a spokeswoman for de Blasio said in a statement at the time. “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.”
Trump, who has a history of denigrating Black people, appeared to take the bait. The city’s announcement of the painting provoked an inflammatory response that tried to play on tensions between Black Lives Matter protesters and the New York Police Department.
Trump and de Blasio have sparred repeatedly in recent years. The mayor once said that New York would not “welcome back” Trump, who was born in Queens, after his presidency ended. Months later, the president, who has called de Blasio “the worst mayor in America,” switched his primary residence to Florida.
The public battle between the two men intensified after de Blasio announced his Democratic presidential bid last year. The mayor made Trump’s behavior a focal point of his campaign, and the president repeatedly scorned the mayor’s hopes for higher office.
New York City’s project followed an act by Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, who had “Black Lives Matter” painted in giant yellow letters outside the White House after the president deployed federal officers during protests there sparked by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.