Amid a national uprising for racial justice and a deadly pandemic that’s disproportionately impacting Black, Latinx and Native communities, President Donald Trump is promising lengthy prison sentences for anyone who destroys or dismantles a monument to a slave-owning president or leader of the Confederacy.
At a Saturday campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Trump came to the defense of Confederate leaders like Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, whose statues have been defaced and removed in recent weeks. “The unhinged left-wing mob is trying to vandalize our history, desecrate our monuments ― our beautiful monuments,” he said, adding that “they want to demolish our heritage.”
And after protesters attempted to topple a statue of slave-owning Trump hero President Andrew Jackson near the White House on Monday, Trump announced on Twitter that he had “authorized the Federal Government to arrest anyone who vandalizes or destroys any monument, statue or other such Federal property in the U.S. with up to 10 years in prison.” Effective immediately, he added, but “may also be used retroactively for destruction or vandalism already caused.” Continue reading.