West Hollywood may urge removal of Trump’s star from Walk of Fame
The West Hollywood City Council will vote Monday night on a proposal to urge that President Trump’s star be removed from the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The resolution, put forth by West Hollywood Mayor Pro Tem John D’Amico and Councilwoman Lindsey Horvath, urges the city of Los Angeles -- where the star is located -- and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to remove the marker “due to [Trump’s] disturbing treatment of women and other actions.”
Trump’s star on Hollywood Boulevard near Highland Avenue has taken a beating since the 2016 presidential campaign. In late July, the marker was annihilated by a pickax-wielding Austin Mikel Clay, 24, who promptly turned himself in to police. And in October 2016, a man was caught on video attacking the star with a sledgehammer. The start has been spray-painted, stomped on and spat upon.
The West Hollywood resolution doesn’t mention the vandalism in its case for removing the star. But a staff report makes several other arguments for doing so, among them Trump’s treatment of women, the separation of children from their parents at the U.S. border and “denial of findings from the United States intelligence community regarding Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.”
The staff report also urges the city of Los Angeles and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to revisit qualifications for being included in the Walk of Fame, which features more than 2,500 terrazzo-and-brass stars dedicated to the famous.
Trump received his star in 2007 for his work as producer of the Miss Universe pageant.
Similar calls to remove Trump’s star were made when the president characterized Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals during his presidential campaign.
When activists called for the removal of Bill Cosby’s star from the Walk of Fame in 2015 amid numerous allegations of sexual assault, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce refused.
“Once a star has been added to the walk, it is considered a part of the historic fabric of the Hollywood Walk of Fame,” said Leron Gubler, then the president and chief executive of the chamber. “Because of this, we have never removed a star from the walk.”
laura.newberry@latimes.com | Twitter: @LauraMNewberry
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