Homeless Woman Defends Trump’s Walk of Fame Star

Photo+by+Peter+Duke%2C+Courtesy+of+Twitter

Photo by Peter Duke, Courtesy of Twitter

Susan Arancena, Arts & Entertainment Editor

Donald J. Trump has been in the news for quite some time. Being the Republican Presidential Nominee and notorious for being very blunt, there has been a portrayal of extremely polar reactions towards Trump.

So extreme, that early last Wednesday morning, a man who was dressed as a city construction worker carried a sledgehammer and vandalized the Ex- Celebrity Apprentice host’s walk of fame star in Hollywood.

“I think it’s a bad representation of our country that our Republican nominee had his star vandalized. Mainly that the people of this country dislike Donald Trump so much so that they are willing to act out in this fashion, but also in that our Republican nominee has a celebrity star in the first place. He could very well be our next President of the United States and he’s viewed more as a celebrity than a politician,” said junior baseball player Ryan Aquino.

The walk of fame star was vandalized by a man named Jamie Otis. Otis exclaimed in an interview with Deadline that his intentions were originally to remove the star completely. The star itself was intended to be auctioned in New York. Its value, in which was determined in 2007, is $30,000. Otis mentioned that it would have been a source of fundraising for the women who have come forward as victims of Trump’s alleged sexual assault over the past decades. There have been 11 women who accused the GOP candidate, Trump. Otis was arrested and was set on $20,000 dollar bail.

“It was pointless. It will be remade in a few weeks,” said junior Marvin Jean-Baptiste.

Other students felt that Otis’ actions were warranted.

“He should not be president. Anyone who supposedly treated women in that manner should be in prison,” said sophomore Brandon Collins.

There have been multiple incidents of people defacing Trump’s walk of fame star. Last January someone drew a reverse swastika and in July a street artist made a small razor wire wall that surrounded the star.

“I think that [Trump] can be very rude and vulgar in the way in which he speaks and addresses different issues, but whether you support him or not vandalization is not the way to go about it. I feel as if it’s stooping down to a low-level and may be the type of behavior to add fuel to his ‘political flame.’ I think that behavior like vandalization, from people who may not support Trump, makes their party look bad,” said sophomore Galo Carrera.

In response to this vandalization that occurred last Wednesday, there was a video that was uploaded to social media of a homeless woman, who is a Trump supporter, protecting the walk of fame star. This unidentified woman carried alongside her signs that said, “Twenty million illegals and Americans sleep on the streets in tents,” and, “Obama threw our black a– under the bus.” Many people on social media have questioned the woman for her views. Yet even though she received backlash, the woman protected the star for over 24 hours.

“To me, homeless and Trump supporter is an oxymoron,” said Jean-Baptiste.

“Nobody should be treated the way this woman was. Throughout the campaign, we’ve seen people get black balled or mistreated for their political views, from both parties. I feel that all are entitled to their views and there should be no mistreatment due to strongly supporting your party in [peaceful or civil] protests,” said Carrera.

“This is a much better representation of our rights and our country as a whole due to this woman’s peaceful intentions. Both the person who vandalized the star and the woman who is protecting this star have their rights to say how they feel, but the protection of this star and her intentions, in general, are much more admirable,” said Aquino.