Deadline Hollywood identified the man as Jamie Otis. Other news outlets said he was an heir to the Otis Elevator fortune, and quoted him as saying that he was “proud” of his actions, which he cast as “civil disobedience.” But his identity could not be confirmed independently.

Ana Martinez, a spokeswoman for the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which administers the Walk of Fame, said in an email that the star would be replaced. It would be covered for the next several days while it settled and dried, the chamber said in a statement.

Leron Gubler, the chamber’s president, said the organization was working with the police and intended to “prosecute to the full extent of the law.”

An email to a spokeswoman for Mr. Trump seeking comment was not immediately returned on Wednesday.

Mr. Patten, a veteran journalist who has lived in Los Angeles for almost a decade and has worked at Deadline for just over five years, said the man may have been unable to remove the star because “these things are set very deeply in cement.”

Mr. Trump’s star, in the 6800 block of Hollywood Boulevard, has been the target of numerous attempts at defacement in the last several months. Since Mr. Trump announced his presidential bid, it has been hit with paint and graffiti, which have been cleaned off.

In July, a tiny barbed-wire fence, complete with American flags, was erected by an artist around the star.