New York City to paint 'Black Lives Matter' outside Trump Tower

(Image credit: Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images)

last updated 26 June 2020

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has ordered the words "Black Lives Matter" be painted in bright yellow paint on the street in front of Trump Tower.

Julia Arredondo, a spokeswoman for de Blasio, said in a statement on Thursday that Trump "is a disgrace to the values we cherish in New York City. 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 message is expected to be painted sometime within the next week.

Trump shared his displeasure with the order on Twitter. He wrote that de Blasio "wants to paint the fabled & beautiful Fifth Avenue, right in front of Trump Tower/Tiffany, with a big yellow Black Lives Matter sign," and this is making New York police officers "furious!" He also accused Black Lives Matter protesters of chanting "Pigs in a Blanket, Fry 'Em Like Bacon, referring to killing police." The New York Times notes that Fox News host Tucker Carlson recently aired footage on his show of protesters chanting this during a 2015 demonstration in Minnesota.

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Earlier Thursday, the latest Washington Post-Ipsos poll was released, which found that five percent of Black voters would cast their ballots for Trump, compared to 92 percent for former Vice President Joe Biden. Nine percent of Black Americans approve of how Trump is doing his job, while 75 percent view him with strong disapproval, and when asked if Trump is biased against Black people, 87 percent responded yes.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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