Trump Orders Dismantling of Decades-Old DC Peace Vigil
By Brad Reed | Common Dreams on Comments Off on Trump Orders Dismantling of Decades-Old DC Peace Vigil
The volunteer who has manned the vigil for years said that “it is covered by the First Amendment right to freedom of speech and freedom of expression” and moved to take legal action
The White House Peace Vigil on March 30, 2025 staffed by volunteers, Philipos Melaku-Bello (left) and Joe Brown (right). Image-Public Domain
An anti-war vigil that has been a fixture in Washington DC’s Lafayette Square since the 1980s was taken down over the weekend under orders from US President Donald Trump.
The Associated Pressreports that the vigil, which was first erected in 1981 by activist William Thomas to promote nuclear disarmament, was removed by the Park Police on Sunday morning, just days after Trump indicated that he wanted it gone.
Philipos Melaku-Bello, a man who has manned the vigil for years on a volunteer basis, said that law enforcement officials falsely accused him of setting up an illegal shelter.
“The difference between an encampment and a vigil is that an encampment is where homeless people live,” Melaku-Bello told the AP. “As you can see, I don’t have a bed. I have signs and it is covered by the First Amendment right to freedom of speech and freedom of expression.”
Melaku-Bello added that he’s been in touch with attorneys who may help him file a civil rights complaint against the Trump administration, whom he accused of “choosing to call a place that is not an encampment an encampment just to fit what is in Trump’s agenda of removing the encampments.”
Trump has deployed the National Guard to the nation’s capital to “end vagrancy” and forcibly displace unhoused people who live in encampments in the city.
As the AP noted, the vigil first came to Trump’s attention this past Friday when right-wing journalist Brian Glenn of Real America’s Voice asked the president about the vigil, which he described as an “eyesore” that had “morphed into… an anti-American, sometimes anti-Trump” display.
“Take it down,” Trump said in response to Glenn. “Take it down today, right now.”
The president’s threat against the peace vigil came days after he signed an executive order in an effort to rename the Department of Defense “the Department of War,” and as he suggested his administration is going to “war” against major US cities as it carries out its anti-immigration agenda.
The removal of the vigil also came on the same weekend where tens of thousands of Washington, DC residents marched to the White House to demand Trump end his deployment of the National Guard in their city, which he has baselessly claimed is necessary to stop crime in the nation’s capital.
