Trump Tower in New York City had to be closed to visitors on Wednesday after a man who is believed to be a member of a climate extremist group vandalized part of the lobby.
Shortly after noon, a young man walked into the public lobby of the building, strode over to the seal of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States, and proceeded to tag it with the letters “USA” in green spray paint, video from Freedom News TV showed.
The young man then knelt down beneath his apparent act of vandalism, eyes closed, soaking in the attention from the crowd gathered around with their cell phones in hand. He then pulled out a small banner with the message “Game Over” emblazoned on it and held it up for all to see.
Security agents quickly descended upon the individual, placing him in handcuffs and ordering him to leave. As they escorted him out of the building, the man robotically cried out, “This is your country. This is your country. This is our country.
“This is our planet,” he continued. “You cannot ruin it without comment. They are ruining the planet for profit.”
‘All American political parties are equally complicit in inaction which has brought us to this point. Switching to blue is not the solution.’
While agents were busy detaining the young man, an older man wearing a backpack quickly stepped forward and apparently attempted to protect the spray painter from law enforcement. “Don’t touch him!” the older man repeatedly barked.
The older man then demanded to know the name, badge number, and police department of the officer placing the younger man in handcuffs. The officer eventually appeared to tell the older man he was with NYPD, but his other remarks are unintelligible on the video.
Officers then cleared the area, claiming that it had to be shut down. Some tourists were not pleased.
“I was standing in line to take a picture. It’s ridiculous,” Jeff from Missouri told amNewYork. “There is a lot of division in this country, a lot of whining — it is what it is.”
One person can be heard on the video calling the spray painter a “f**king piece of s**t.”
James Byrne, a U.S. Secret Service spokesperson, confirmed the incident in a statement. “The U.S. Secret Service is aware of an incident involving a person spray-painting graffiti inside the public lobby of Trump Tower in New York City,” Byrne said. “There are no disruptions to protective operations. We thank the NYPD for their immediate response and unwavering partnership.”
Trump is not believed to have been at Trump Tower at the time.
AmNewYork reported that the individual responsible for the vandalism is a member of the extremist group Extinction Rebellion NYC. The outlet also shared a statement from him:
I did this because I am an American. It is my duty to stand up for my country, and my Earth, when a government becomes destructive of our right to life. Donald Trump and the regime of private interests he works for — who donate equally to each party — are destructive of your inalienable right to life. All American political parties are equally complicit in inaction which has brought us to this point. Switching to blue is not the solution. Kamala Harris’ climate platform was fracked gas, much deadlier than regular. Decades of inaction have brought about the current climate catastrophe.
The outlet did not provide the name of the suspect or make any mention of the elderly man who attempted to run interference for him.
The detained individual reportedly claimed that he used removable chalk in the attack on Trump’s seal. The New York Post, citing sources in law enforcement, claimed that he had previously been nabbed for criminal trespass at Columbia University.
AmNewYork further indicated that Extinction Rebellion had engaged in a series of events of dubious legality to mark Earth Day. Among them included acts of vandalism on a Tesla dealership and a disruption of a performance by the New York City Ballet.
Blaze News reached out to a representative of the group, who plans to host a training session “to learn how XR NYC is confronting the breakdown of democracy and the destruction fueled by Big Oil” on Wednesday evening. Our message was not returned.
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Secret service, Climate extremism, Extinction rebellion, Nyc, Seal, Spray paint, Trump tower, Politics
