President Trump criticized New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday for “denigrating” upscale Fifth Avenue with a Black Lives Matter mural to be painted in front of Trump Tower, calling it a “symbol of hate.”
The Democratic mayor fired back that Mr. Trump is racist, and that Black people “have never been justly compensated” for building one of America’s most fashionable roads.
Mr. de Blasio confirmed that the mural will be installed on the doorstep of the Trump Organization “in a matter of days.”
On Twitter, the president also took issue with New York City’s decision to cut $1 billion from its police budget, part of a national movement on the left to “defund” police departments amid protests against racial injustice.
“NYC is cutting Police by ONE BILLION DOLLARS, and yet the @NYCMayor is going to paint a big, expensive, yellow Black Lives Matter sign on Fifth Avenue, denigrating this luxury Avenue,” Mr. Trump tweeted.
He said the mural “will further antagonize New York’s Finest, who LOVE New York & vividly remember the horrible BLM chant, ’Pigs In A Blanket, Fry ’Em Like Bacon.’
“Maybe our GREAT Police, who have been neutralized and scorned by a mayor who hates & disrespects them, won’t let this symbol of hate be affixed to New York’s greatest street. Spend this money fighting crime instead!” Mr. Trump tweeted.
Mr. de Blasio tweeted back, “Here’s what you don’t understand: Black people BUILT 5th Ave and so much of this nation. Your ’luxury’ came from THEIR labor, for which they have never been justly compensated.
“We are honoring them. The fact that you see it as denigrating your street is the definition of racism,” the mayor told Mr. Trump.
Mr. de Blasio added, “You also don’t know that NY’s Finest are now a majority people of color. They already know Black Lives Matter. There is no ’symbol of hate’ here. Just a commitment to truth. Only in your mind could an affirmation of people’s value be a scary thing.”
The mayor confirmed Wednesday on MSNBC that Black Lives Matter murals will be put up “all over this city, including right in front of Trump Tower.
“It’s an important message to the whole nation, and obviously we want the president to hear it, because he’s never shown respect for those three words,” Mr. de Blasio said. “When he hears Black Lives Matter, he presents a horrible, negative reality of something that doesn’t exist, and he misses the underlying meaning that we’re saying we have to honor the role of African Americans in our history and in our society.”
He said he wants to “amplify” an important moment in history. “We have to make it come alive today,” the mayor said. “So we’re going to make it really clear to the president. It’s going to be right outside his doorstep.”
Former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, a Trump ally, said Black Lives Matter “is a Marxist organization run by three avowed Marxists.”
“Black Lives Matter has been planning to destroy the police for three years,” Mr. Giuliani told reporters on his way into the West Wing on Wednesday. “They’ve finally gotten stupid Democrat mayors to agree with them.”
He said “all the lawlessness is happening in Democrat cities, run by Democrats, sometimes for 40, 50 and 100 years. There hasn’t been a Republican mayor there in forever except New York, and it was me, and I brought crime down 65%.
“And right now, murder is up 58% under the regressive Democrat mayor [de Blasio], who’s typical of Democrat mayors all over the country. They are a disaster. They’re a danger to their people,” Mr. Giuliani sai
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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