In anticipation of Trump’s 100th day as buffoon-in-chief a Facebook friend posted he was curating a crowdsourcing effort to gather 100 unique marks of “Fuck Trump” throughout the city.
Anyone who’s walked a couple commercial blocks from Friendship Heights to Congress Heights has noticed the expletive welcoming the 45th president to a city that voted nearly 96 percent against him.
After seeing my friend’s call for submissions, I exited the Anacostia Metro station and thought I’d give the street photography version of Pokémon Go a try. In a few strides, I captured my first “Fuck Trump” on an upside down bus schedule on Howard Road SE.
The walk down Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue towards Good Hope Road was lined with “Fuck Trump”—on Express newspaper boxes, DHCD signs, and even a recently installed Heritage Trail marker. With 10 minutes, I’d captured a half dozen. Not bad.
If there has been an organized or coordinated effort to flood the streets with Trump agitprop, I haven’t seen it. To date the most well-known form of protest art was hung from a crane hundreds of feet above the asphalt jungle.
While street artists in Philadelphia and in areas around the world have been creative and persistent with their proselytism, D.C. has resorted to the simple yet visceral “Fuck Trump.”
A sanitized version of “Fuck Trump” is the large “DUMP TRUMP” graffiti with the poop emoji in between, which Red Line commuters see daily between Takoma and Ft. Totten stations. (BORF seems to be sitting this one out.)
With the latest protest invasion planned for this weekend, there will once again be tens of thousands of people in the streets. So don’t expect the “Fuck Trump” sentiment in mind and sight to go anywhere anytime soon.