Artists set up wall of anti-Trump billboards outside debate site

Organisers say ‘we are bringing our message to the streets’ with anti-Trump posters

Billboards critical of Donald Trump have been installed across Cleveland, Ohio, where tonight’s televised presidential debate with Joe Biden will take place.

Artists in the city designed nine posters that went up this week, all of which address crises seen amid the US president’s first term in office.

Installed as part of the #VoteThemOut campaign attempting to persuade swing state voters to back Mr Biden, the billboards feature some of Mr Trump’s most outrageous comments on police brutality and other issues.

According to 5 News Cleveland, two billboards have been printed with the president’s comments amid protests in Minneapolis over the police killing of George Floyd, that Twitter labelled as ‘'glorifying violence”.

In comments that he tried to walk-back on hours later, Mr Trump appeared to incite violence as he wrote: ”When the looting starts the shooting starts” - a quote now shown on a billboard opposite the airport in Cleveland, where he’ll arrive later tonight.

Other billboards feature Mr Trump’s controversial comments on migrant children and the coronavirus pandemic, which he claimed would “disappear” despite a mounting death toll.  

Cleveland natives Scott Goodstein and Jeff Rusnak, who run the RememberWhatTheyDid project, worked with the Artists United for Change group as well as the #VoteThemOut campaign, to use the president’s own words against him.

The pair also believe the billboards, which have been placed in predominantly Black and Hispanic neighbourhoods, can bolster activism and voter registration.

“Forty percent of voters aren’t reached by the usual voter-file matched political advertising and many of these voters are in communities that are underrepresented at the polls,” Mr Goodstein told TheGrio.

“So we are bringing our message to the streets because in an election year this is important, we cannot allow any of our communities to be overlooked,” he added.

The #VoteThemOut campaign is currently operating across Detroit, Michigan; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Cleveland, Ohio and Phoenix, Arizona.