Black Lives Matter: Statue protest comes to Trump’s door

Statue toppling has reached the White House, with protesters attacking the iconic statue of Andrew Jackson opposite the president’s home.

A row of police officers stand in a row with the equestrian statue of former US President General Andrew Jackson behind, after protesters tried to topple it, at Lafayette square, in front of the White House, in Washington. Picture: Eric Baradat/AFP

The wave of statue toppling in the US has reached the front of the White House with protesters trying to pull down the iconic statue of Andrew Jackson that stands opposite the president’s home.

The brazen attack on the statue of Jackson, America’s 7th president, failed as police used pepper to force hundreds of protesters back after they tried to use ropes to bring the bronze statue down.

The Jackson statue is one of the country’s best known because it stands in Lafayette Square overlooking the White House and has appeared in countless tourist photos.

Jackson, who was president from 1829 to 1837, is also one of Donald Trump’s favourite figures and a portrait of Jackson hangs in the Oval Office.

The marble base of the statue had already been defaced with graffiti when protesters suddenly threw ropes around the stature and tried to pull it down before police could stop them.

They failed, but such an attack on the doorstep of the White House will embarrass security officials at a time when statues of confederate soldiers as well as presidents and other historical figures are increasingly under attack across the US.

A row of police officers stand guard overnight. Picture: Eric Baradat/AFP

The area around Lafayette Square outside the White House has resembled a war zone ever since the large George Floyd protesters several weeks ago, with buildings boarded up, statues defaced, graffiti sprayed across buildings and daily protests.

Former president Jackson was a polarising figure, having been a military hero, a slave-owner, a lawyer, a judge and a planter.

He was the only president to serve in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, but he supported slavery and forced Native Americans off their land in 1830, leading to the Trail Tears march that cost the lives of thousands.

Mr Trump has said he identifies with Jackson who was an outsider and a populist.

“They say that his campaign and his whole thing was most like mine. That was interesting … That’s the great Andrew Jackson, who actually was a great general, and he was a great president — but a controversial president,’ Mr Trump said of Jackson in 2017.

Trump opposed calls by the Obama administration to replace Jackson from the $US20 bill and replace him with the abolitionist leader Harriet Tubman.

Protesters outside the White House were calling themselves the Black House Autonomous Zone or “BHAZ.’

The letters BHAZ were sprayed in black paint on the pillars of the St John’s Episcopal Church opposite the White House.

The church was where the president held up a bible after protesters were forcibly cleared from the area in a controversial photo opportunity at the height of the George Floyd protests.

Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia.

Police form a security line as protesters advance. Picture: Maya Alleruzzo/AP