PHOENIX — Donald Trump will make a return appearance on a Phoenix billboard that went viral after the 2016 election.
A new billboard, scheduled to go up Saturday, shows Trump in diapers, sitting next to a bucket of "Hitler Fried Chicken," a Confederate flag cake with lit sticks of dynamite, a "Happy January 6th" banner, and wearing a "Putin's Mini-Me" t-shirt.
"He acts like a big baby. A scary baby, though," Beatrice Moore, the owner of the billboard at Grand and 11th avenues, said in an interview. "How can you look up to a person like that?"
The billboard owner and artist make no apologies for what are bound to be controversial images of Trump.
"It's symbolism," Moore said. "A lot of artwork has symbolism, and that's why it's effective."
Moore shared an image of the billboard with 12News.
"I'm not expressing something that's not based in factuality," said artist Karen Fiorito of Los Angeles, Moore's longtime collaborator.
Moore has been a leader of the Grand Avenue arts scene for many years. She can plaster anything she wants on the billboard she owns.
"No billboard company in their right mind would put this up. It'd be sued or doxxed," Fiorito said. "Beatrice... believes in freedom of speech. She believes in core political speech, which is protected by the Constitution... and put it up on a billboard."
The artwork or images promote progressive political causes or scorch right-wing politicians.
"It's kind of amazing how visual imagery can create such a stir," Moore said during a conversation beneath the billboard.
Moore has done much more than create a stir.
In 2017, just two months into Trump's term as president, Moore's billboard stopped traffic on Grand Avenue. Billboard artwork titled "Trumpocalypse" had gone viral.
The new president's menacing glare looked down on Grand Avenue. His head was flanked by mushroom clouds and swastikas looking like dollar signs
"People started showing up with their cameras from foreign countries, even nationwide," Moore said. "We had no idea would that would happen."
A right-wing group claimed at the time that Moore used City of Phoenix tax dollars to pay for the billboard. The claim was refuted.
Moore called it "a total lie."
"We've always paid... out of our own pockets," she said. "That's the beauty of being self-employed, having a fair amount of real estate along Grand Avenue and a lot of tenants who pay us monthly... We're able to fund things like this."
Does the billboard go too far?
Fiorito says facts and free speech are on their side.
"Art is about your opinion and... how you feel," Fiorito said. "But I'm not expressing something that's not based in fact. The message is pretty clear: We're in danger of losing our democracy."
Fiorito's first billboard on Grand Avenue went up in 2004. It was for her master's thesis at Arizona State University.
The billboard showed President George W. Bush. "Dear America," it said, "We lied to you for your own good. Now trust us."
Fiorito's private information was made public by people angered by the billboard.
Now she and Moore are bracing for a new round of blowback.
"I've been down this road," Fiorito said. "I know it can be scary. I'm not afraid."
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