The Hollywood Walk of Fame star dedicated to Trump at the height of his Apprentice fame in 2007 has become a hotbed for political unrest since he declared his candidacy for president in 2015.
January 2016 – Swastika
Someone spray painted a reverse swastika – the symbol of the Nazi party -on the star.
The Anti-Defamation League, whose mission is to stop the defamation of Jewish people, explains the distinction between forward and reverse-facing swastikas, as follows:
‘The swastika as adopted by the Nazis has “arms” that hook to the right; later white supremacists maintained this tradition.
‘Though sometimes more ignorant white supremacists accidentally render swastikas “backwards,” the backwards or left-pointing swastika is typically the hallmark of someone not actually that familiar with white supremacist iconography.’
May 2016 – Golden toilet
A gold-colored toilet featuring the words: ‘Take A Trump’ spray painted on the tank was placed by the star in May of 2016 as part of a larger art installation.
It was created in reference to the Guggenheim offering to loan the president a golden toilet after turning down a request for a specific piece of Van Gogh art
June 2016 – Mute symbol
The star was spray painted with the symbol for ‘mute’, which has a speaker with an X over it.
Speculation around the spray painting of the ‘mute’ sign included the possibility that it was meant to protest Trump’s antagonistic language used during his campaign.
That incident was video taped and posted on YouTube with the title, ‘Trump muted in Hollywood blvd.’
July 2016 – Miniature wall
In response to Trump’s campaign promise to build a wall at the Mexico border, LA-based street artist Plastic Jesus erected a small wall around his star in July 2016.
The 6-in-high concrete wall is topped with razor wire, miniature American flags and is decorated with ‘Keep Out’ signs written in both Spanish and English.
October 2016 – Pick ax incident #1
Right before Trump was elected president, a man named James Otis dressed as a construction worker and took a pick ax and a sledge hammer to the star.
Otis said his goal was to remove the star, auction it, and donate any money raised to the women who accused Trump of sexual assault leading up to the presidential election.
Otis pleaded no contest to a felony vandalism charge related to the incident in February 2017, was placed on probation, sentenced to 20 days of community service and ordered to pay $4,400 in damages and lawyer’s fees.
June 2017 – Permanent marker
While getting scribbled on with permanent marker definitely is tame compared to the other vandalism to the star, an incident went viral in 2017 after a woman tweeted photos of herself cleaning the star with the caption: ‘Nothing but respect for my president.’
The caption was quickly turned into a meme with people tweeting photos of themselves with other stars on the Walk of Fame.
July 2018 – George Lopez ‘peeing’
The was caught on video crouching next to the brass plaque on Hollywood Boulevard as a stream of water flowed from between his legs.
However, on closer inspection Lopez – whose face was scrunched up in a mock grimace – was carrying a small bottle of water which he was using to mimic the act.
Several Trump supporter’s called for his arrest for public indecency, but police confirmed he had not actually done anything illegal
July 2018 – Pick ax incident #2
Police received a call about vandalism to the star at around 3.30am on July 25, Los Angeles Police Officer Ray Brown told DailyMail.com.
Austin Clay, 24, turned himself in to the Beverly Hills Police Department an hour later at 4.30am.
Clay was booked on suspicion of felony vandalism and was being held on $20,000 bail before his predecessor Otis came to spring him free.
Clay’s girlfriend has said she didn’t know of his plans to destroy the star but that he had been vocal about his dislike of the president.
