U.S. President Donald Trump’s leadership — or lack thereof — remains divisive. After coming out on top in an election in which more people voted against him than for him, it’s hardly as though he’s managed to capture the support of a majority of Americans. Some New Yorkers are among those who have had enough.
For around twelve hours that began sometime between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, an electronic road sign in the Brooklyn area read, “Fuck Trump.” The sign had been there for around a week before the expletive laden take down of the president replaced the official innocuous message warning pedestrians of a bridge closure. The rhetorical attack on President Trump stayed up until around 3 P.M. local time.
Check it out below.
There’s no word as to who was behind the sign alteration, or if authorities even have any idea who it was or interest in the perpetrator’s identity. The sign, according to a spokesperson for the New York Department of Transportation, belongs to a contractor.
Scott Gastel told the New York Post:
‘This sign belongs to a contractor and was addressed. It’s the contractor’s responsibility to maintain those, including repairs and clarifications.’
No matter whose exact responsibility the sign alteration was, some locals appreciated the gesture.
Greenpoint’s Andrew Rappa commented:
‘I thought this was pretty funny. These signs are normally used for direction or order. It’s a result of everything that’s been happening in our government.’
Some of the most recent developments in the saga of Trump’s attempt to govern reveal just how corrupt he and his associates really are. This week, a jury in Virginia found his former campaign manager Paul Manafort guilty of eight fraud charges that stem from years of secretive work for pro-Kremlin interests. He still faces a second trial in Washington, D.C., later this year covering some of the more political aspects to his work.
Also this week, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to eight charges against him, including two counts of campaign finance law violations. In his explanation of those crimes, which involved secretly peddling hundreds of thousands of dollars in hush money to secretly influence the 2016 election, he implicated the president, asserting that he worked at his direction. What legal consequences Trump could actually face for that remain to be seen.
In the meantime, he’s certainly continuing to fail to capture the imaginations of any overwhelming majority of people anywhere. FiveThirtyEight currently has him with an about 42 percent approval rating, which is lower than most every other modern president’s approval rating at this point in their tenure. Barack Obama had one of 45 percent at this point during his time in office.
In the U.S. and around the world, significant anti-Trump protests like the altered Brooklyn road sign keep popping up. For instance, during the president’s recent trip to the United Kingdom, huge masses of protesters gathered, and in a particularly eye-catching detail, some of them flew a blimp depicting Trump as a crying baby above the crowd. Similar balloons have since made their way to the U.S.
Trump said he was irritated by the balloon — that, though, is the point.
Featured Image via YouTube screenshot
