An Iowa city overruled President Donald Trump’s team and ordered a tarp pulled off a racial solidarity mural at the site of his rally.
The city of Dubuque said in a statement Saturday night that a tarp had been hung that evening over the “Solidarity” mural on the Five Flags Center and that the city “did not authorize the tarp,” KCRG reported.
The city said it had ordered Oak View Group, the private company that runs the city-owned arena, to remove the tarp, and that it had been removed. Trump’s rally there opened its doors at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, according to the event listing.
The tarp came down the same night it went up, hours before Trump’s rally began.
“Trump insists on having Dubuque’s Solidarity Mural covered up so it can’t be seen during his visit,” Scott Horton, a Harper’s Magazine contributing editor, wrote on Bluesky Sunday morning. “The mural shows people of a variety of skin colors, whereas the Trump campaign prefers whites only.”
Scott Hallgren, Oak View Group’s general manager for Five Flags, told KCRG that the White House’s Office of Presidential Advance, which plans the president’s official visits, decided to cover the mural. He said the White House’s goal was exterior branding and putting up a U.S. flag.
But the mural is already bordered by the five flags that have flown over Dubuque, topped by the current U.S. flag, the Des Moines Register reported. By Hallgren’s account, the White House wanted branding and a U.S. flag beside a mural already bordered by one.
Hallgren said Five Flags, Oak View and the city did not authorize hanging anything on the building. The city said it was not asked whether the exterior could be changed.
“The facility rental agreement for the Sunday, Nov. 1, event does not include any authority to modify the exterior of the facility,” the city said in its statement.
That put the advance team’s tarp on a city-owned building under a rental deal that, by the city’s account, gave the event no power to alter its exterior.
“We value and respect what this mural means to our community and to the citizens of Dubuque,” Hallgren said in a statement, KCRG reported.
The mural, which the Register called a “diversity mural,” shows 10 raised fists in Black, brown and white skin tones. Letters on the wrists spell out “SOLIDARITY,” with symbols including a Pride rainbow and emblems for disability rights, mental health and gender diversity, the Register reported.
Dubuque artist Shelby Fry painted it in 2020 with the help of 80 volunteers, inspired by the crowds that protested after George Floyd, a Black man, died at the hands of Minneapolis police that year, according to the Register.
City officials, including the city manager and the city attorney, worked with Fry to secure permission to place the mural on the city-owned building, local radio station WJOD reported at the time.
“This is an important and significant artistic expression, giving birth to a unified statement by the city of Dubuque,” then-Mayor Roy D. Buol said in 2020, according to WJOD. The tarp hid a mural the city had approved for its own building, and its mayor had called the city’s statement.
Trump has criticized diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts as “woke” and divisive and has ordered displays about diversity and historical racism removed from federal museums and historic sites, the Register noted.
“The Trump administration attempted to have this beautiful solidarity mural covered in Dubuque before the President could see it today,” Rep. Eric Sorensen (D-IL) wrote on X Sunday. “I’m thankful the city (which owns the building) demanded the tarp be removed.”