Mayor of Chicago Brandon Johnson is planning to pull down the statue of first United States President George Washington that is sitting in the hallway of the mayor’s office, a top aide said on Tuesday.

Johnson’s communications director, Ronnie Reese, said the statue “is being removed from the hallway outside the mayor’s office as we make updates to some areas around City Hall,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Despite a website maintained by Mount Vernon stating 317 men, women and children were enslaved at Washington’s ancestral home on Mount Vernon’s five farms, Mr Reese said the removal is not connected to one of the American founding fathers’ ownership of slaves.

“If people want to think that, I can’t stop them. But that’s not our intent,” Mr Reese said. “We’re just freshening up the space. Making it a bit more current.”

Mr Reese said there is no timetable for removing the statue standing on the fifth floor of City Hall and refused to comment on a possible new site for the monument nor the replacement for the space when it becomes empty, the Sun-Times reported.

“There’s a lot of Chicago icons who would be deserving of statues as well. We should be considering that also — Ida B. Wells, DuSable, Harold Washington,” Mr Reese added.