{Photograph} at OC Fair condemned by county Republicans as name to violence towards Trump – Orange County Register

The OC Fair‘s inclusion of a photograph of two younger boys perched out a automobile window – one with a “Happy Last Birthday” check in hand and the opposite with an obvious caricature of President Donald Trump – among the many displayed contest entries has sparked outrage amongst Orange County Republicans.

The framed {photograph} was taken at a No Kings protest in Torrance earlier this yr, in line with the caption. It was labeled as avenue pictures.

A video calling out the picture, posted to X on Monday, Aug. 3, had been seen greater than 200,000 instances by Tuesday afternoon, drawing condemnation from tons of of commenters who known as the pictured signal an try and incite violence towards Trump.

Will O’Neill, chairman of the Republican Party of Orange County, demanded that the truthful take away the “politically charged” {photograph} and clarify who permitted its show.

“Public institutions should exercise extraordinary caution before displaying imagery that can reasonably be interpreted as normalizing or trivializing rhetoric surrounding the death or elimination of political figures,” O’Neill wrote in a letter to OC Fair Board Chair Barbara Bagneris. “At best, the display demonstrates astonishingly poor judgment. At worst, it contributes to the toxic political environment that leaders across the political spectrum claim they want to reduce.”

OC Fair spokesperson Terry Moore mentioned entries for visible arts competitions are chosen on “artistic and technical merit” solely.

“The photograph in question was reviewed by the judging panel and accepted as a representation of a public event,” Moore mentioned in an announcement. “The viewpoints of the artists are their own.”

The photographer contacted truthful officers on Tuesday requesting that the entry be faraway from show, Moore mentioned.

O’Neill mentioned truthful organizers had denied the OC Republican Party’s participation on the yr’s occasion, for the primary time in additional than a decade, so as “to avoid political activity.” Yet, displaying a photograph captured at a No Kings protest is “anything but politically neutral,” he mentioned.

“Will the fair reconsider its policies to ensure that no political ideology receives preferential treatment in future exhibitions?” he requested in his letter.