A
controversial billboard depicting President Donald Trump as a Nazi was funded
with taxpayer dollars and was commissioned by an “arts advocate” paid by a U.S.
city to “diminish barriers,” records obtained by Judicial Watch reveal. The
massive billboard caused a ruckus when it was unveiled in downtown Phoenix,
Arizona in mid-March because it features a menacing portrait of Trump
surrounded by mushroom clouds—in the shape of laughing clowns—and swastikas
modified as dollar signs. A pin of a Russian flag appears on the president’s
lapel.
The
huge display towers over Grand Avenue and Taylor Street in downtown Phoenix and
will remain there throughout Trump’s presidency, according to the local art
gallery that claims to own it and conveniently omits that public money is
involved. A multitude of local and national media outlets covered the
controversy surrounding the artist that created it and the contentious image it
portrays, but all have failed to uncover the important fact that taxpayer
dollars are behind it.
Instead,
the media has reported that the Trump Nazi billboard was commissioned by the
billboard owner, Beatrice Moore, a longtime patron of the arts on Grand Avenue.
Moore’s deep ties to the city and the cash she receives for her various public
art endeavors have remained secret. The news reports have also focused on the
death threats that the artist, Karen Fiorito, has received. A local paper reported
that the billboard went up during an annual art event and that the artist aimed
to stir up a controversy.
Mainstream
national media also failed to report the important fact that taxpayer dollars
contributed to the offensive billboard. The Washington Post opted to serve as a
mouthpiece for Fiorito’s anti-Trump tirade. In a piece published days after the
billboard controversy hit the artist calls Trump supporters “scumbags” and says
the country is on a “very dangerous path” toward “total annihilation.” A
California news outlet focused on Fiorito’s death threats and her
interpretation of the art, which “represents global destruction, warfare and
annihilation of the planet.” The dollar swastikas represent “corporate power
and greed and how our society has become all about money and corporatism,” the
artist says in the story.
Shortly
after the billboard was erected Judicial Watch filed a public records request
with the city of Phoenix to obtain details related to public monies connected
to organizations and organizers of the sign. This week Judicial Watch received
the documents that show the city of Phoenix has awarded Moore, the Trump Nazi
billboard owner and a prominent figure in the local art community, thousands of
dollars in grants for a program she runs called Grand Avenue Arts &
Preservation (GAP), which encompasses the Art Detour event where the Nazi
billboard made its debut. The publicly funded annual art celebration is touted
as having “a diverse slate of activities created by local artists and art
venues to celebrate the growing, vibrant Phoenix arts scene” and is described
as “…one of the most important events in Phoenix’s calendar” by Phoenix Mayor
Greg Stanton. The event is produced by a group called Artlink, which was
founded by Moore, in partnership with the city of Phoenix. Former Phoenix
Deputy City Manager Rick Naimark, who retired in 2015 with a hefty pension,
sits on the board of Artlink.
Moore
and her various publicly-funded art enterprises received $3,500 from the city
of Phoenix in July 2016, the records obtained by Judicial Watch show, which
encompasses the March 2017 Art Detour event that kicked off with the Trump Nazi
billboard. In August 2016 Artlink, founded by Moore, was awarded $1,800 for the
2017 Art Detour event, according to the records. Moore, who contracted Fiorito
to create the anti-Trump billboard, is recognized by the city as an “artist,
community organizer and arts advocate” and the annual festival she puts
together with public money aims to “diminish barriers,” the records say. Funds
come from “government grant monies,” including the Arizona Commission on the
Arts, and the money is used for “artists’ fees.” The objectionable Trump
billboard, which involves taxpayer money, doesn’t appear to promote a “growing,
vibrant” art scene in the City of Phoenix and seems to fall short of Moore’s
stated goal of “diminishing barriers” through art.
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