Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, has sought to establish a good working relationship with Trump, seeking to head off Republican calls for fully overturning the city’s right to govern itself.
She has also been worried that mass layoffs of federal workers by Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk could wreak havoc on the city’s finances.
“We have bigger fish to fry than fights over what has been very important to us and to the history, and especially in our ability to keep our city safe during that time – that mural played a very important part,” Bowser told reporters last week.
“But now our focus is on making sure our residents and our economy survives.”
When asked if it was in response to White House pressure, she said: “I’m not going to talk about specifics ... but I think it’s safe to say that people don’t like it, didn’t like it.”
As jackhammers ploughed away on Monday at the pavement, numerous onlookers snapped photos of the work.
Two African American women told AFP they had come to get a final look at the mural, expressing dismay at the decision to remove it.
Both said they were lifelong Democrats.
“It’s history ... and now they’re basically saying it didn’t happen,” said one of the two, a 54-year-old caregiver from nearby Virginia who requested anonymity because of her political work.
“The money you’re spending to remove it could’ve been spent on so many other things,” she said.
“What’s next?” asked her friend, 57-year-old Tajuana McCallister, a healthcare worker in Maryland.
“Black history clearly doesn’t matter to him,” she said, nodding toward the White House.
The site, erected during the protests, showed leaders “have compassion, [were saying] ‘we hear you’”, according to the caregiver.
Its removal, she said, shows “what you [leaders] said didn’t matter”.
-Agence France-Presse
