Donald Trump's Hollywood Star

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About

Donald Trump's Hollywood Star is the star-shaped plaque embedded in the sidewalk as part of the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Built in 2007 to honor Donald Trump's achievement in the entertainment industry as the host of NBC reality TV series The Apprentice, the monument has been frequently targeted by vandalism, mainly in protest of his 2016 presidential campaign and the subsequent outcome of the election. In late June 2017, Trump's Hollywood Star became a popular subject of parodies, including a satirical photo fad after a young Trump supporter tweeted about cleaning anti-Trump graffiti off the star.

Origin

On June 28th, 2017, Twitter user @makenna_mg posted a picture of herself cleaning up President Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which had been covered in stickers and graffiti. She captioned the post "Stopped to clean @realDonaldTrump Hollywood Star. Nothing but respect for MY President. #RaisedRight" Within five days, the post (shown below) received more than 55,000 retweets 208,000 likes.^[1]

Precursor

Since installed on January 16th, 2007, Trump's star has been subject to numerous acts of vandalism. On July 22nd, 2016, the street artist Plastic Jesus^[5] constructed a small wall around the star (shown below, left) in reference to Trump's Mexican border wall.. On October 26th, James Lambert Otis destroyed Trump's star with a pickaxe. He has been charged with vandalism (shown below, right).^[4]

Spread

Shortly after the post went viral, a now private Twitter account posted parody of the picture in which a woman stands over the star, which has been covered in stickers, and raising her middle fingers. She captioned the post (shown below) "@ the girl who cleaned trumps star."

On June 30th, the Twitter account @polNewsForever^[3] posted the two pictures side-by-side with the caption "Your choice: -wholesome White girl cleaning a public place OR -vulgar Hispanic girl spreading graffiti." The tweet (shown below, left) received more than 5,300 retweets and 18,000 likes. Another Twitter user @lexi4prez retweeted @polNewsForever's tweet, adding the caption "rt for the lit hispanic girl." This follow up tweet (shown below, right) received more than 170,000 retweets and 130,000 likes.

Three days later, on July 1st, Twitter user @jake__stubbs^[2] posted a parody of the original tweet. In the picture, he is standing in front of actress Meryl Streep's Walk of Fame star with the caption "Stopped to clean @MerylStreep Hollywood Star. Nothing but respect for MY President. #RaisedRight." Within two days, the tweet (shown below) received more than 84,000 retweets and 327,000 likes.

Shortly after the first two parodies were post, more people began taking pictures in front of various stars on the walk of fame (examples below).

2018 Smashing

On July 25th, 2018, an unidentified man smashed Trump's star with a pick ax. Onlooker Patricia Cox, who was present for the attack, told a CBS^[6] affiliate (video below, left) the man "went to town" on the ground. She said, "I thought it was work going on over here." It was reported that the man turned himself into police.

That day, Redditor^[7] goatious posted an image of the star after the demolition on the /r/pics subreddit. The post (shown below, right) received more than 35,000 points (77% upvoted) and 5,900 comments in less than 24 hours.

Additionally, that day, Twitter^[8] user @TheRyanParker posted two pictures of the star on the website. They captioned the post, "Donald Trump’s star completely destroyed along the Hollywood walk of fame." The post (shown below) received more than 3,400 retweets and 11,000 likes in 24 hours.

Removal

On August 7th, 2018, the West Hollywood City Council unanimously voted to officially seek the removal Donald Trump's star from the Hollywood Walk of Fame.^[9] However, the Walk of Fame is not controlled by the city council of West Hollywood and would therefore be a decision for the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, who has never removed a star.

On August 9th, a the Twitter account @TheFaction1776, which calls itself "anti-PC street art, tweeted, "Take down his star, and we will descend upon you with 30 fresh new stars. We are MAGA Legion." The post (shown below) featured video of numerous Donald Trump stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Within 24 hours, the post received more than 3,300 retweets and 8,300 likes.