NEW YORK _ President Trump blasted Black Lives Matter as a "symbol of hate" on Wednesday and claimed the city would ruin the "luxury" of Midtown by painting a mural of the famous rallying cry in front of his most prized skyscraper.
The president aired the divisive complaint in a string of tweets after Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city will move ahead "in a matter of days" with plans to paint "Black Lives Matter" in giant, yellow letters on the stretch of Fifth Avenue directly in front of Trump Tower.
"NYC is cutting Police $'s by ONE BILLION DOLLARS, and yet the Mayor is going to paint a big, expensive, yellow Black Lives Matter sign on Fifth Avenue, denigrating this luxury Avenue," Trump wrote, referring to the NYPD cuts included in the budget passed by the City Council overnight Tuesday.
"Maybe our GREAT Police, who have been neutralized and scorned by a mayor who hates and disrespects them, won't let this symbol of hate be affixed to New York's greatest street."
De Blasio said Trump's reaction proved his point.
"Black people BUILT 5th Ave and so much of this nation. Your 'luxury' came from THEIR labor, for which they have never been justly compensated. We are honoring them," de Blasio tweeted at Trump. "The fact that you see it as denigrating your street is the definition of racism."
The mayor added, "There is no 'symbol of hate' here. Just a commitment to truth. Only in your mind could an affirmation of people's value be a scary thing."
De Blasio announced earlier this month that the city would paint "Black Lives Matter" murals on streets at locations around the city. The first such block-long message was put on Fulton Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
The mayor's announcement followed a move by officials in Washington, D.C., to paint the slogan in enormous yellow letters on the street leading to the White House.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tried to explain Trump's "symbol of hate" tweet later Wednesday, telling reporters he was only referring to the "organization."
"All black lives do matter, he agrees with that sentiment, but what he doesn't agree with is an organization that chants 'pigs in a blanket, fry them like bacon,' about our police officers, our valiant heroes," McEnany said during a briefing at the White House.
Despite McEnany's defense, the anti-police chant has not been heard widely in New York or other cities since mass protests erupted in the wake the police killing of George Floyd in May.
When asked for examples of protesters chanting the anti-cop slogan, a White House official pointed to a single instance during a demonstration last month in St. Paul, Minn.
Trump's denigration of Black Lives Matter as a "symbol of hate" comes as he's under fire for a string of actions and statements that critics call racist.
He has vigorously opposed mounting calls for removing statues honoring the Confederacy and other racist structures, saying in a tweet late Tuesday that tearing them down would insult the "Heritage, History and Greatness of our Country."
Over the weekend, the president retweeted a video of one of his supporters shouting "white power" and called the person "great" in an accompanying message.
Trump ended up deleting that eyebrow-raising retweet, and aides said he hadn't heard the racist phrase before sharing the video with his 83 million followers.
However, Trump has yet to condemn the supporter's racist language.
McEnany claimed during Wednesday's briefing that the "deletion speaks for itself."
"He deleted it," she said. "This is a president who has repeatedly condemned hate and repeatedly encouraged for us all to come together."
In spite of his vehement opposition to a Black Lives Matter mural, Trump no longer holds residency in New York and has spent little time in the city since changing his residence to Florida last year.
The president's namesake business empire, which he still owns and profits from, remains headquartered in Trump Tower.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo backed the city's decision to paint the mural, albeit with a little sniping that local leaders should put the slogan into action by enacting police reform.
"Send that message to Mr. Trump," Cuomo said. "You know what's better? Do something."
