Los Angeles activist pushes for Trump’s star removal from Hollywood Walk of Fame

A Los Angeles activist, Andrew Rudick, is petitioning the city council to remove former President Donald Trump’s star from the Hollywood Walk of Fame, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The star, which Trump received in 2007 for his work on ‘The Apprentice’ and the Miss Universe pageant, has been a target of vandalism and destruction since the 2016 election.

Rudick argues that Trump does not deserve to be honoured on the Walk of Fame, which features more than 2,700 celebrities in various media fields, because he attempted a coup against the U.S.

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“It cannot be this hard. This man attempted a coup against the United States and yet we continue to honor him … How are we the voters supposed to have faith in the city council to deal with any real level of challenge if they can’t get this done?,” Rudick told The Guardian.

Trump a ‘racist, fascist, and a threat to our democracy,’

The LA activist’s petition, which started in 2020, has gathered over 3,800 signatures so far. However, the city council and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which are both involved in the management of the stars, have not taken any action to remove Trump’s star.

Notably, the chamber has a policy of not removing any stars from the Walk of Fame, even for celebrities who have faced scandals or controversies, such as Kevin Spacey and Bill Cosby.

The chamber told The Guardian that the policy has not changed and that repairing Trump’s star, which has been smashed with a pickaxe in 2018 and other times, is not too costly.

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The city council, on the other hand, is still exploring the legal and procedural aspects of removing a star.

Council member Hugo Soto-Martínez, who called Trump a “racist, fascist, and a threat to our democracy,” said the council is “looking into where the authority lies, what the legal issues may be, and what a process for it might look like.” Another council member, Bob Blumenfield, expressed his support for the removal of Trump’s star.