A large painting that reads “Black Lives Matter” on a street one block away from the White House is set to be removed. However, Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser continues to thwart off “threats” from the Trump administration and congressional Republicans.
Bowser took to X on Tuesday (Mar. 4) to make the announcement. “The mural inspired millions of people and helped our city through a painful period, but now we can’t afford to be distracted by meaningless congressional interference,” she wrote. “The devastating impacts of the federal job cuts must be our number one concern.”
She has already faced backlash over her sentiment, particularly from those spearheading the Black Lives Matter movement. Nee Nee Taylor, a founding member of the D.C. Black Lives Matter affiliate, called out Bowser on X on Tuesday, stating, “You never cared about Black Lives Mattering. You painting those words were performative.”
Per HuffPost, Bowser’s tweet reflects a “striking shift in tone toward Trump and congressional Republicans since the president’s first term in office.”
Bowser — who’s a Democrat — commissioned the painting and renamed the intersection Black Lives Matter Plaza as a public act of defiance in June 2020 following the death of George Floyd and subsequent protests. Her response to the public outcry sparked direct conflict between her and Trump, who accused her of “losing control of her city” and threatened to “take over” the Metropolitan Police Department.
Despite not following through, he did use other forces to intimidate protesters.
Since his return to office, Bowser has attempted to evade conflict with Trump and met with him to discuss their mutual need for federal employees to return to their offices full-time. However, his push to cut the federal workforce is affecting D.C.’s finances. There’s predicted to be a $1 billion budget short over the next three years.
Trump has also revived his interest in a federal “takeover” of Washington, D.C., but Bowser has not commented on reports of that executive order. She’s also expressed that the greatest threat to the autonomy was “some of the people in Congress.”
Leave a comment