Nobody's ever lost their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. But if resident Andrew Rudick has his way, Donald Trump will become the first.
Over the last three years, Rudick has submitted public records requests, retrieved case documents from the Los Angeles County Superior Court, spoken at City Council meetings and corresponded with government officials.
"The reasonably conveyed message to the millions who have walked past that plaque since 2021 is the city's endorsement of a man who attempted a coup against the United States," Rudick said at a Los Angeles City Council meeting in December.
Removing the star is not going to be easy. Although multiple City Council members have said they do not support the former president and would like to see his star removed, nobody knows exactly how to make that happen. Because the removal of a star is unprecedented, a process for doing so has never been established.
Trump was awarded his star in 2007 for his role on "The Apprentice" and his work as a producer of the Miss Universe pageant. It wasn't that big of a deal until Trump was elected president. Since then, it has been vandalized and smashed several times, costing more than $20,000 in repairs since 2016, according to the Hollywood Historic Trust.
Several groups with varying levels of jurisdiction have a hand in operating the Walk of Fame, including the Los Angeles City Council, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the Hollywood Historic Trust.
The threshold for getting a star removed is high. Spade Cooley, a swing musician who earned his star in 1960, was convicted of murdering his wife one year later. But his star remains.
There also were calls to remove Bill Cosby's star after he was accused of sexual misconduct by more than 45 women and was found guilty of aggravated indecent assault in 2018. His conviction was later overturned, and the star remained through it all.
