A controversial Black Lives Matter protest mural in Washington, DC, erected in a tense moment between president Donald Trump and Washington, D.C.’s Democratic mayor Muriel Bowser after the police murder of George Floyd in June 2020, is being demolished. Republicans threatened to withhold millions in federal funding if the mural was not removed and the site renamed. Bowser had dubbed the intersection of 16th Street and I Street “Black Lives Matter Plaza.”

The mural, which rendered the slogan in 35-foot-tall letters, was created on the surface of 16th Street Northwest, just a block north of the White House, by D.C.’s Department of Public Works. The move came after Trump ordered the National Guard to violently clear Lafayette Square of peaceful BLM protesters on June 1 so that he and some of his supporters could stage a photo of him holding aloft a Bible outside St. John’s Episcopal Church. 

“There was a dispute this week about whose street this is,” John Falcicchio, the chief of staff for D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, wrote in a tweet at the time. “Mayor Bowser wanted to make it abundantly clear that this is D.C.’s street and to honor demonstrators who (were) peacefully protesting on Monday evening.” Mayor Bowser also tweeted a video surveying the mural accompanied by the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter.

Bowser announced last week that the mural would be removed after Republican representative Andrew Clyde of Georgia filed legislation threatening to withhold millions of dollars in federal funding unless the city removed the mural and renamed the stretch of pavement “Liberty Plaza.”

In a statement on X, Bowser acknowledged the mural’s historic significance, but acknowledged that losing funding would be disastrous.

Crews dismantling the Black Lives Matter Plaza street mural on March 11, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Photo: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images.

“We have long considered Black Lives Matter Plaza’s evolution and the plaza will be part of D.C.’s America 250 mural project, where we will invite students and artists to create new murals across all eight wards,” Bowser wrote. “The mural inspired millions of people and helped our city through a very painful period, but now we can’t afford to be distracted by meaningless congressional interference. The devastating impacts of the federal job cuts must be our number one concern. Our focus is on economic growth, public safety, and supporting our residents affected by these cuts.”

Megan Bailiff, CEO of Equus Striping, the pavement marking company that painted the letters, called the removal “historically obscene” in a conversation with an AP reporter, adding that the mural is ““more significant at this very moment than it ever has been in this country.” Protesters met the removal with banners speaking out against Trump.

Activist Nadine Seiler stands at Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House, holding a sign that reads “Black Lives Matter, Trump Can’t Erase Us,” as crews begin removing the iconic Black Lives Matter mural behind her. Photo: Probal Rashid/LightRocket via Getty Images.

Not everyone was in support of the mural when it was created, as Artnet News reported.

“This is performative and a distraction from her active counter organizing to our demands to decrease the police budget and invest in the community,” the D.C. chapter of Black Lives Matter wrote at the time. “Black Lives Matter means Defund the police.” Activists had argued against Bowser’s proposed 2021 budget, which increased police funding while cutting other programs, including a violence prevention initiative.

The Department of Public Works did not immediately answer an email inquiring about the demolition.

“Black Lives Matter Plaza will no longer stain the streets of Washington DC,” he said. “America’s capital city must serve as a beacon of freedom, patriotism and safety – not wokeness, divisiveness and lawlessness.”

Names and symbols have been a preoccupation for the second Trump administration and its Republican allies. One of Trump’s first executive orders was to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and he banned a major US news agency, the Associated Press, from the Oval Office and Air Force One for refusing to use the new name. The president also renamed Denali, a mountain in Alaska, to Mount McKinley.

On Sunday, members of Kappa Alpha Psi, a black fraternity, gathered at Black Lives Matter Plaza to sing and remember. Richard Mattox, one of their number, told local NBC television the group was not protesting and understood why the artwork was being removed.

“But we want it to be known that you can erase this, but you cannot erase our history,” he said. “This is just a setback before a serious comeback.”

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The mural’s removal is far from the only change being made in Washington to appease Republicans. Last week, Trump ordered Bowser to remove the “unsightly” homeless encampments around the city, specifically those near the White House and outside the State Department’s C Street headquarters.

“If she is not capable of doing so, we will be forced to do it for her! Washington DC must become CLEAN and SAFE!” Trump posted on social media.

The city duly began clearing out the camps on Friday morning, starting with about a dozen tents near the State Department in Foggy Bottom. A timetable of future clean-ups has been posted online, with 11 more locations slated for clearing in the next three weeks.

The District of Columbia operates under the Home Rule Act, which gives Congress the power to block laws passed by the district’s council. Theoretically, Congress could also revoke home rule.

WASHINGTON – Federal investigators probing the deadly January crash between a passenger jet and an Army helicopter over the Potomac River are calling for a ban on certain helicopter flights, saying the current rules are too dangerous. 

The crash killed 67 people.

The collision occurred as the American Airlines jet was approaching Ronald Reagan National Airport on Jan. 29. Among the victims were 28 members of the figure skating community.

DCA crash sparks safety warning

What they’re saying:

National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said the board determined that the existing separation distance between planes and helicopters at Reagan National Airport is “insufficient and poses an intolerable risk to aviation safety.”

Homendy said she was angry and also devastated for families that are grieving because they lost loved ones.

“It shouldn’t take tragedy to require immediate action,” she said.

Under the current practice, helicopters and planes can be as close as 75 feet apart from each other during landing, Homendy said. Investigators have identified 15,214 instances of planes getting alerts about helicopters being in close proximity between October 2021 and December 2024, she said.

Following the crash, the FAA took steps to restrict helicopter flights around Reagan National Airport to ensure that planes and helicopters are no longer sharing the same airspace. Now flights are put on hold temporarily when helicopters need to pass by the airport.

Investigators call for helicopter ban

Big picture view:

Homendy said the NTSB is recommending that the FAA find a “permanent solution” for alternate routes for helicopter traffic when two of the airport’s runways are in use.

Investigators have said the helicopter may have had inaccurate altitude readings in the moments before the crash, and the crew may not have heard key instructions from air traffic controllers. The collision likely occurred at an altitude just under 300 feet (91 meters), as the plane descended toward the helicopter, which was well above its 200-foot (61-meter) limit for that location.

The helicopter pilots may have also missed part of another communication, when the tower said the jet was turning toward a different runway, Homendy said last month.

The helicopter was on a “check” flight that night where the pilot was undergoing an annual test and a test on using night vision goggles, Homendy said. Investigators believe the crew was wearing night vision goggles throughout the flight.

The Army has said the Black Hawk crew was highly experienced, and accustomed to the crowded skies around the nation’s capital.

Within just a month’s time earlier this year, there were four major aviation disasters in North America, including the midair collision over the Potomac and most recently in mid-February when a Delta flight flipped and landed on its roof at Toronto’s Pearson Airport, injuring 21 people.

Those accidents and close calls left some worried about the safety of flying even though fatal crashes are rare and the track record of U.S. airlines is remarkably sound.

President Donald Trump blamed the midair collision over Washington, D.C., on what he called an “obsolete” air traffic control system and promised to replace it. He also faulted the helicopter for flying too high.

Federal officials have been raising concerns about an overtaxed and understaffed air traffic control system for years, especially after a series of close calls between planes at U.S. airports. Among the reasons they have cited for staffing shortages are uncompetitive pay, long shifts, intensive training and mandatory retirements. 

Watch the full NTSB press conference below: