By Karen Matthews
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio grabbed a roller Thursday to paint Black Lives Matter in front of the namesake Manhattan tower of President Donald Trump, who tweeted last week that the street mural would be "a symbol of hate."
De Blasio was flanked by his wife, Chirlane McCray, and the Rev. Al Sharpton as he helped paint the racial justice rallying cry in giant yellow letters on Fifth Avenue in front of Trump Tower. Activists watching chanted, "Whose streets? Our streets!"
The mayor announced the plan to paint Black Lives Matter in front of Trump Tower last month after earlier saying the slogan would be painted on streets at several locations around the city. Trump responded via Twitter that the mural would denigrate "this luxury Avenue" and "further antagonize New York's Finest." De Blasio tweeted back that Black Lives Matter is "a movement to recognize and protect the lives of Black people."
Rahima Torrence, 20, who was among the people slapping yellow paint onto Fifth Avenue, said that even though the mural might be a symbol, "it's the beginning of something more." She said the location in front of Trump's own skyscraper "shows that we matter and it shows to him that you can't ignore us."
Washington, D.C. was the first U.S. city to get a giant yellow Black Lives Matter mural when Mayor Muriel Bowser had it painted on the street leading to the White House. Bowser said the painting was intended to show solidarity with Americans outraged over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Trump lived in Trump Tower before he took office as president but has spent little time there since. He changed his official residence from New York to Florida last year. His business empire is still headquartered there.
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Associated Press video journalist Joe Frederick contributed to this report.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Donald Trump has a message for critics who think turning the U.S. government into a major stockholder of Intel is a “socialist” move: More is coming.
Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook's lawyer says she'll sue President Donald Trump's administration to try to prevent him from firing her. Longtime Washington attorney Abbe Lowell said Tuesday that Trump “has no authority to remove” Cook. If Trump succeeds in removing Cook from the Fed's board of governors, it could erode the Fed’s political independence, which is considered critical to its ability to fight inflation because it enables the Fed to take unpopular steps like raising interest rates. The Republican president said Monday he was removing Cook because of allegations she committed mortgage fraud. Cook was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden in 2022 and says she won't step down.
Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook late Wednesday said she wouldn’t leave her post after Trump on social media called on her to resign over an accusation from one his officials that she committed mortgage fraud.
