What’s the best way to stick it to United States President Donald Trump? If you’re an average American citizen you might say at the polls or in the streets via peaceful protest. If you’re a porn actress you might say in the sheets and in the courts a la Stormy Daniels. But if you’re a member of the West Hollywood city council, you might have a more grounded answer: on the walk of fame.

This week, that city council unanimously passed a resolution requesting that the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce remove Trump’s star from the Hollywood Walk of Fame: the fifteen blocks of pavement in Tinsel Town bearing the names of more than two thousand celebrities — and even a few cartoon characters (among them, Bugs Bunny, Shrek, and Donald Duck).

In the minds of Hollywood mayor John Duran and his colleagues, the Trump name has no business sharing the pavement with any of them. Speaking to CNN recently, Duran said the following: “Earning a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is an honour. When one belittles and attacks minorities, immigrants, Muslims, people with disabilities or women — the honour no longer exists.”

But what if one is a comedian convicted of multiple accounts of sexual assault? Or an actor accused of assaulting minors? Or a director accused of rape? Bill Cosby’s name remains intact on the walk of fame, despite his legacy of heinous crimes. So does Kevin Spacey’s, despite the mounting allegations against the disgraced actor. And so does director Brett Ratner’s despite the fact that last year, he joined the long list of Hollywood men accused of rape and serial sexual harassment.

No one took a pickaxe recently to Ratner’s star or Spacey’s (an anti-Trump activist meanwhile defaced the president’s star with the tool and was charged with vandalism). Nor is the West Hollywood city council currently attempting to cleanse the walk of any controversial names besides Trump’s.

This is glaring hypocrisy at work — the same breed of hypocrisy that allowed a culture of quiet complicity to thrive around alleged sexual predator Harvey Weinstein while he and his industry friends loudly supported all the right liberal causes.

Read more:

West Hollywood city council seeks removal of Trump’s Walk of Fame star

Man charged with destroying Trump’s Hollywood star

Trump’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star vandalized, again

It’s the same breed of hypocrisy that feeds anti-Hollywood sentiment around the Oscars, an awards show that is criminally boring not only because it’s far too long (though apparently that may change soon) but because in recent years it’s been jam-packed with self-righteousness, i.e. celebrities standing and soberly applauding one another for speaking out against various injustices they will immediately forget about at midnight.

But more than merely hypocritical, attempts to remove Trump’s star from the Walk of Fame are unwise because they inspire the opposite effect. This week, a group of anonymous Trump supporters plastered dozens of replica stars (laminated stickers) bearing the president’s name to the pavement in Hollywood.

One of those anonymous supporters told the press: “Rip up the president’s Walk of Fame star or try to have it removed — like you’re the mayor of West Hollywood or something — and 30 more will pop up.”

They won’t pop up, though, because the star won’t be removed. I hate to say it but the plot to eliminate the thing is a textbook example of what right-wingers in the United States call “Trump Derangement Syndrome”: the notion that some liberals’ extreme hatred of Donald Trump renders them blind to reason and common sense.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

What do you think?

After all, attempts to remove the president’s star are utterly pointless because unlike some governments eager to dismantle controversial monuments, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce is staunch in its refusal to scrub out the past. When the organization once received requests to remove Cosby’s star from the walk, CEO Leron Gubler told the Hollywood Reporter, “The answer is no. The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a registered historic landmark. Once a star has been added to the walk, it is considered a part of the historic fabric of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Because of this, we have never removed a star from the walk.”

Nor should they. A star on the ground isn’t a monument. Tourists don’t look up to it. They look down on it. They tread all over it. They spill ice cream and hotdog mustard on it. Dogs probably relieve themselves on the engraved names of Donald Trump and Bill Cosby nearly every day. Why should we deprive our canine friends this glorious opportunity, and ourselves the opportunity to picture it?

Read more about: