One of the world’s longest-running peace vigils could be under threat after Donald Trump ordered to “take it down”.
The White House Peace Vigil, which has stood near the president’s residence since 1981, is a tent manned around the clock in a call for peace and global disarmament.
Flanked by various anti-war placards, the small blue tent was described as an “eyesore” by a reporter from conservative outlet Real America’s Voice, who asked Mr Trump about it.
“Take it down, today, right now,” he said, after asking where the tent is and claiming he hadn’t heard of it.
“We’re going to look into it right now.”
On Friday night, police were seen talking to what appeared to be demonstrators near the vigil, in Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House.
The vigil-keeper Philipos Melaku-Bello was seen hugging another protester, who feared the 44-year-old site could be torn down.
It follows another threat against the vigil earlier this year, when Representative Jeff Van Drew wrote a letter to the Interior Department describing the site as a “24-7 eyesore”.
In the letter, shared by the Washington Post, he said people have “every right to protest their government”, but not to “hijack a national park and turn it into a 24/7 eyesore”.
The site of the vigil is in a park run by the National Park Service (NPS), which stipulates this tent must be manned at all times to remain standing.
In 2013, the vigil was briefly taken down by park police when it was found abandoned.
Organisers said the man responsible for staying at the tent overnight that day was a veteran who had an episode of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Read more:
Trump rebrands Pentagon as Department of War
Trump is vulnerable over Epstein – this shows why
Follow our channel and never miss an update
A few hours later, the site was allowed to stand again.
Connie Picciotto, who maintained the protest from its launch in 1981 until her death in 2016, said at the time she was “never going to give up”, when she saw the tent had been removed.
