ABC News(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump Thursday called the removal of Confederate statues and memorials “sad,” days after deadly violence at a rally to protest the removal of such an effigy in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments,” he wrote in a series of three tweets. “You can’t change history, but you can learn from it. Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson – who’s next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish! Also the beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced!”
Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments. You…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017
…can’t change history, but you can learn from it. Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson – who’s next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish! Also…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017
…the beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017
The tweets echo a sentiment he touched on during a particularly combative news conference Tuesday when he questioned whether statues of former Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, for example, should be removed as well because they were slaveowners.
“So you know what, it’s fine,” Trump said Tuesday. “You’re changing history. You’re changing culture. And you had people — and I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists — because they should be condemned totally. But you had many people in that group [in Charlottesville] other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists.
“There were people protesting very quietly the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee,” Trump said.
He deferred to local authorities on whether all statues of Confederate Army Gen. Robert E. Lee should remain in place.
“I would say that’s up to a local town, community, or the federal government, depending on where it is located,” he said Tuesday.
Copyright © 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.