Mayor Bill de Blasio has sparked a new feud with President Trump by ordering the words “Black Lives Matter” be painted in large yellow letters on the street outside the Trump Tower.
The words are expected to be painted next week on Fifth Avenue, between 56th and 57th streets, according to the city.
“The president is a disgrace to the values we hold dear in New York City,” said Julia Arredondo, a spokesman for Mr. de Blasio, in a statement Thursday. “You cannot run or deny the reality we are facing, and every time you want to set foot in the place that you say is your hometown, you should remind Black Lives Matter.”
In a reply tweet, Trump referred to Mr. de Blasio’s plan to paint “the legendary and beautiful Fifth Avenue, right in front of Trump Tower / Tiffany” and sought to simulate animosity between the Black Lives Matter movement and the police in New York.
Trump falsely said in the tweet that Black Lives Matter protesters in the city had shouted chants encouraging the murder of police officers.
“‘Pigs in a blanket, frying’ Em Like Bacon ‘, referring to killing the police, is his song,” said Trump, an apparent reference to a song at a 2015 Minnesota protest.
A scene from that protest recently appeared on a segment of the Tucker Carlson show on Fox News.
“The NYPD is furious!” Trump added in the tweet.
Trump, who has a history of denigrating black people, said in another tweet on Thursday that a Black Lives Matter leader in the New York area had committed treason in remarks he made about burning “the system” if no changes occurred. significant. materialize.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about Trump’s tweet or de Blasio’s office statement.
Mr. Trump’s snipes occurred when New York City continued to see protests against racism and police brutality sparked by the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Mr. de Blasio and the Police Department had been criticized earlier this month for their aggressive handling of protesters.
Mr. de Blasio has also been losing black followers. Some of those supporters say the mayor has benefited politically from his promises to reform the Police Department, but has been unable to keep them.
In planning to paint the words, Mr. de Blasio’s tactics mirrored those of Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, who had city workers paint “Black Lives Matter” in giant yellow letters outside the White House amid tensions with the president for his deployment of federal officers. during the protests there. Similar murals have appeared in other cities.
In New York, the street mural outside the Trump Tower will be one of several created by the city. A Black Lives Matter mural has already been painted on Staten Island, on Richmond Terrace, between Hamilton Avenue and the Ferry Terminal Viaduct. Two others will be painted in Manhattan, and Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx will each receive a mural. Details were not immediately available on specifically where those murals will be and when they will be painted.
Another mural in bold yellow letters was painted this month by artists and volunteers on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn.
