An auto body shop in Michigan has removed a Halloween display showing President Donald Trump holding the head of former President Barack Obama by a rope after critics blasted the decoration as “classless” and disgusting.
Dave Huff, owner of Quality Coatings in Fowlerville, said he didn’t expect such a strong reaction to the scarecrow display he put up three weeks ago featuring Trump holding an Obama mask by a rope.
He claimed it was supposed to resemble a spine being ripped out — like the finishing move in the video game classic “Mortal Kombat,” he told the Detroit Free Press.
But after a torrent of criticism online, Huff, who insists “no race ever went into this thing,” altered the display Friday by removing the rope and Obama’s mask, as well as a Hillary Clinton mask, from beneath Trump’s foot.
“It was a Halloween decoration that I guess went too far,” Huff told the newspaper Sunday.
Clinton’s mask now appears atop a three-headed stuffed dummy in back of the altered scarecrow, which is now adorned with yellow caution tape reading, “PC-POLICE.”
Huff, who did not immediately return a request for comment from The Post early Monday, said he didn’t vote in the 2016 presidential election and wasn’t expecting such a fervent response to his Halloween handiwork.
“I don’t support anyone,” he told the newspaper. “I’ve never voted for anyone other than myself.”
A village employee contacted Huff on Friday to let him know that the display — which wasn’t entered in the village’s scarecrow competition — was turning heads for the wrong reasons, one day after a Fowlerville resident said she was “disgusted” by the decorations.
“How is this OK?” Kathy DeTroyer wrote in a since-deleted post on Facebook, where another person commented that the rope looked like a noose. “I am disgusted this is in my hometown. Way to display your ignorance. Democrat or Republican this is just wrong. At least I know who not to do business with.”
Another woman said she was stunned by what she saw before Huff changed the display, particularly since many children were likely exposed to it.
“I just can’t believe it,” Heather McClain told WILX. “This thing has no political views for me, I didn’t even notice who it was at first. All I saw was a white man holding a black man’s head, and I can’t even imagine what people are going through when they see that. It’s just disgusting.”
McClain said she’s now worried about the lasting impact the display may have on the village of roughly 3,000 people.
“This is not a reflection of the community, but people are going to remember where that place is,” McClain told the station.