President Donald Trump on Thursday is’ sad’ about the removal of “beautiful statues and monuments” commemorating the Confederacy, and lamented that America’s history and culture are been “ripped apart” by efforts to move the memorials, echoing a popular refrain of white supremacist groups that oppose the removal of Confederate monuments.
Trump’s comments came days after a white supremacist protest against the removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia turned violent.
In a string of morning tweets, Trump compared the statues of Confederate leaders like Lee and Stonewall Jackson to monuments of US founding fathers, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
“The beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced!” Trump tweeted. Asked during a press conference on Tuesday whether the Lee monument should come down, Trump said: “This week it’s Robert E Lee. I noticed that Stonewall Jackson is coming down. I wonder, is it George Washington next week? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know, you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?” While all four men were slaveholders, neither Washington nor Jefferson rebelled against the US in an attempt to protect the institution of slavery from federal interference.
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