The man who destroyed Donald Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame yesterday has been bailed out of jail by another man who did the very same thing in 2016.
Austin Clay attacked the star with a pickaxe in the dead of night on Tuesday, before reportedly calling in the crime himself, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“Multiple people - including police - tell me a man walked up with a guitar case and pulled out the pick axe. Then, it’s believed, he called police himself to report it, but left the scene before they got here,” tweeted NBC LA’s Jonathan Gonzalez at the time.
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Clay was eventually arrested but James Otis who had also destroyed the star back in 2016 is “now stepping up to pay the $20,000 (£15,000) bail for Clay”, says TMZ.
Otis “isn't just writing a cheque either - he also plans to meet Clay in person as soon as he's released”, adds the website.
While “we don’t know the motive of the pickaxe-wielding star destroyer, the stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame represent a certain level of distinction for celebrities”, says Vox.
Fast Company reports that Trump received his Walk of Fame star in 2007, at the peak of his Apprentice fame - but notes that the star “was actually awarded for Trump’s work as a producer of the Miss Universe pageant”.
Otis, the heir to the lift manufacturer’s fortune, told CNN in 2016, he defaced the star in support of women who had accused Trump of sexual assault. He was consequently charged with felony vandalism but avoided jail by pleading no contest. Otis was sentenced to “three years probation and had to pay $4,400 dollars to replace the damaged star”, reports TMZ.
Trump’s star has “also been the subject of protest art, with a wall erected around it in 2016 to symbolise the president’s policy on immigration”, reports The Guardian.
