President Donald Trump on Thursday morning sent out a series of tweets criticizing the removal of Confederate statues and monuments, calling decisions to remove them "so foolish."
There have been widespread calls this week to swiftly remove Confederate monuments across southern cities following the violence in Charlottesville, Va. over the weekend between white supremacists and counter-protesters. A man with alt-right ties was arrested and charged with murder for driving his car into a group of counter-protesters, killing one and injuring 19.
Trump tweeted that he was "sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments."
He said it was "foolish" to remove Confederate monuments, asking if the U.S. should also remove statues of the country's Founding Fathers to erase history.
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
Since the violence in Charlottesville, which started when white nationalists organized protests against the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue, many people have called for Confederate statues to be removed. Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh ordered four Confederate statues to be removed overnight on Tuesday after the City Council voted Monday to have them removed. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D.) said Thursday on "CBS This Morning" that the monuments "need to come down."
Trump received backlash over the weekend after his initial response condemning violence in Charlottesville seemed to reference fault on "many sides." Many lawmakers and reporters thought Trump did not go far enough in condemning white supremacists and neo-Nazis.