The crews eliminate the “Black Lives Matter” mural, near the White House

The construction crews began to remove the big painting of the words “Black Lives Matter” from a street block at the White House, while the mayor of Washington, Muriel Bowser, struggles to prevent defeat threats from both President Donald Trump and the Congress controlled by Republican.

Bowser showed the change on the social platform X last week, writing: “The mural inspired millions of people and helped our city through a painful period, but now we cannot afford to be distracted by the interference of the meaningless Congress. The devastating impact of federal jobs must be our number one concern. ”

This move shows the striking change of Bowser to Trump and the Republicans of Congress from the first term of the president in office. Bowser, a Democrat, ordered painting and renamed the intersection of Black Lives Matter Plaza as a public challenge act in June 2020. It came after days of chaotic protests in that location for the bakery of the police by the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

Her approach to protests brought it to a direct conflict with Trump. The president at that time accused Bowser of losing control over her city and threatened to invoke her power to take over the Metropolitan Police Department. He did not follow, but he declared his own multiagence blocking that included helicopters that fly at low altitudes to intimidate the protest.

In Trump’s second stint in the White House, Bowser worked to avoid conflicts and reduce any content points. She traveled to Trump’s Mar-A-Lago estate to meet the president after her elections and publicly emphasized her points of agreement, such as the mutual desire to return the federal workers back to their full-time offices.

Trump has recently revived a frequent discussion point of the desire for a federal “takeover” of the nation’s capital, describing Washington as full of crime, graffiti and homeless camps. Bowser refused to comment on the reports that the White House was preparing an executive order targeting Washington; She said publicly that the biggest threat to the so-called autonomy of the rules of origin was “some of the people of Congress.”

Republicans, who control both rooms of Congress, have repeatedly threatened that they will intervene in the city’s business in large and small ways. A measure currently before Congress, called Bowser law, is trying to completely return the law on the internal rule of 1973, which gives the limited autonomy of the capital.

This would be deeply controversial, probably testing the power of the majority of the GOP house with three seats. Some representatives used budgetary pilots to target Washington policies, from marijuana’s legalization, if the right turns on red lights should be legal. And some of the Congress have spoken public about their contempt for Black Lives Matter Street painting.

While Bowser and Trump agreed on the return of federal workers to their offices, Pusiting Trump to reduce federal workforce is already financing the city’s finances. A report last week from the city’s financial director predicted a budget deficit of $ 1 billion over the next three years due to the loss of thousands of federal government workers.

Bowser got up publicly with Black Lives Matter activists in 2020 did not earn too much credibility with them at that time. The local affiliate Black Lives Matter rejected the movement as “performative wokness” and decreed it on the bowser as being overwhelming part of the police. The same activists threw the bowser on Tuesday, following his reversal.

Nee Nee Taylor, a founding member of DC Black Lives Matter’s affiliate, addressed Bowser on Tuesday, saying: “He never interested in Black Lives. Painting those words were performing. ”