Take heed, liberal Portlanders — this news might land like, well, a ton of bricks.
Specifically, U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s name is carved onto two of the clay-fired red bricks comprising downtown Portland’s iconic Pioneer Courthouse Square.
Both bricks — one with a period after Trump’s middle initial, the other lacking such punctuation — have been around since 2017, the same year as Trump’s first inauguration.
It’s just a tiny slice of the roughly 85,000 bricks that have been purchased since the landmark known as “Portland’s Living Room” opened in 1984.
“You’re pretty much allowed to put whatever you want on the brick, as long as it’s PG-13 and 18 characters or less,” said Stephanie Wisniewski, administrative manager for the square. “But the person who bought it was not Donald Trump.”
Trump’s relationship with Portland has been… bittersweet, to say the least. He said the city had been “destroyed” by rioters in an interview in August, and was mocked in an unofficial art installation that was itself soon wrecked by vandals in late October, just days before the election.
The state’s top elected officials have sued to stop many of Trump’s executive orders, including those involving birthright citizenship, gender-affirming health care and purges of the federal workforce.
And while Trump’s bricks aren’t new, the issue took on significant weight this week when a person using the name V. E. Smith created an online petition calling for the removal of Trump’s name from the square.
“The presence of a brick bearing Donald J. Trump’s name contradicts the core values that our cherished square represents,” the petition reads.
Wisniewski says the nonprofit that maintains the square has no plans to remove any of the red rectangles adorned with names, anniversaries, memorials — or presidential pomp.
But there are roughly 60,000 bricks still available for sale at $150 a piece, including vertical brickfaces. A local sandblaster is currently filling in the upper tier, near the Starbucks coffee shop.
Both of Trump’s bricks can be visited in the southwest corner of the square, near the decorative planters and seating. Former President Barack Obama also has a brick in that area.
—Zane Sparling covers breaking news and courts for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reach him at 503-319-7083, zsparling@oregonian.com or @pdxzane.
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