New mural in Lexington features expletive against President Trump

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – A new mural in downtown Lexington is striking up controversy.

The conversation is all about two words written in cursive near the left side of the photo.

It reads, “F*** Trump.”

The mural is on the backside of a building owned by Attorney Michael Davidson. It faces Church Street.

Tuesday night, Davidson had a man try and spray paint over cursive writing.

@ABC36News The owner of the building is having this man try and paint over the expletive against the President. The mural artist painted “F*** Trump” in cursive near the snake’s mouth. Tons of people have been coming by and some even heckling the man. pic.twitter.com/7JUs6VrrMk

— Monica Harkins ABC 36 (@MonicaHarkinstv) October 23, 2019

ELLE Street Art, a New York based artist, partnered with locally owned arts gallery PRHBTN for the mural.

In a statement to The Lexington Herald Leader, a co-owner of PRHBTN said they didn’t know Elle would use an expletive against the President. Adding, the artists have complete creative control for their art.

Susan Straub, a spoksperson for the City of Lexington, said: “This is a mural on a private building. No public dollars are involved in this mural. As much as we don’t agree with the use of vulgarity, this is a free speech issue.”

One man, Steve Keaton, who has been watching the progress of the mural from the start said the building owner shouldn’t be trying to cover the artist’s work, despite the expletive.

“It’s free speech, I mean people use bad language all the time, that’s part of life,” Keaton said.

The artist posted to Facebook about the piece, saying it’s not about politics.

ELLE Street Art posted: “The Devil is in the Details.” In America we are all entitled to share our opinion, and it’s important to exercise this right. Let me be clear, this is not about politics, this is about expressing my anger: I am fed up!”