US: Big painting of the words “Black Lives Matter” on a street a block from the White House begins to be removed

Washington, DC: As Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser battled to ward off threats of encroachment from both US President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress, construction workers started tearing down the large painting of the words “Black Lives Matter” on a street one block from the White House on Monday (local time), according to VOA News.

“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,” Bowser said last week on the social media site X, pointing out the modification. Our first priority must be the disastrous effects of the government employment reduction.

Bowser’s tone toward Trump and congressional Republicans has changed significantly since the President’s first term in office, as seen by this action.

In June 2020, Bowser, a Democrat, publicly defied the law by ordering the painting and renaming the junction Black Lives Matter Plaza. It followed days of tumultuous demonstrations against police violence at that site after a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd, according to VOA News.

She then got into a heated argument with Trump on how she handled the protesters. Trump has threatened to use his authority to seize control of the Metropolitan Police Department and accused Bowser of losing control of her city. Instead, he announced his own multi-agency lockdown, which included low-flying helicopters to scare demonstrators, according to VOA News.

Bowser lost a lot of credibility with Black Lives Matter protestors in 2020 after openly supporting them. Bowser was criticized by the local Black Lives Matter branch for being heavily prejudiced toward police, and the action was derided as “performative wokeness.” After Bowser’s reversal, the same activists criticized her on Tuesday, according to VOA News.

Bowser sought to minimize any grounds of friction and steer clear of controversy throughout Trump’s second term. After Trump was elected, she visited his Mar-a-Lago resort to speak with him, and she has openly highlighted their shared goals, including bringing government employees back to their full-time jobs.