- After the US
Embassy inSouth Korea put up aBlack Lives Matter banner on Saturday, State Department officials reportedly ordered it to come down on Monday. - Several
news reports indicate that President Trump's displeasure led to an official request to come from the State Department. - Black Lives Matter's nonprofit status is the ostensible reason offered publicly for the banner's removal by the embassy.
- "To avoid the misperception that American taxpayer dollars were spent to benefit such organizations, [US Ambassador to South Korea Harry Harris] directed that the banner be removed," a spokesman told Reuters.
Only a couple days after a Black Lives Matter banner was hoisted next to the American flag at the US Embassy in South Korea, it was taken down Monday.
Several reports cite President Trump's displeasure at the move leading to the State Department officially requesting for the banner to come down.
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A spokesman for US Ambassador to South Korea Harry Harris told Reuters that Black Lives Matter's nonprofit status was the reason it could not be displayed.
"To avoid the misperception that American taxpayer dollars were spent to benefit such organizations, he directed that the banner be removed," the spokesman said, adding "this in no way lessens the principles and ideals expressed by raising the banner."
On Saturday, Ambassador Harris quote tweeted the embassy's photo of the banner going up, quoting former President John F. Kennedy.
—Harry Harris (@USAmbROK) June 13, 2020
Harris ran the US Indo-Pacific Command from 2015 to 2018 before starting his ambassador post, and was the first Asian-American to hold a four-star rank in the US Navy.