“I have just had the privilege of signing a very strong Executive Order that protects the Monuments, Monuments and Statues of the United States, and fights recent criminal violence,” the president wrote Friday. “Long prison terms for these illegal acts against our Great Country!”
The text of the law has not been published. It is unclear how the order differs from the current Veterans Memorial Preservation Act, under which the President claimed earlier this week that he had “authorized the Federal Government to arrest anyone who destroys or destroys any monument, statue or other Federal property in the United States with up to 10 years in prison. “
CNN reported that some Trump allies had been pressuring the White House to take a stand, any stand, on racial issues that fractured the country.
While some outside advisers had advocated an even stronger condemnation of the looting and destruction of property, they acknowledge that even a conciliatory approach spanning the other side of the debate would serve the President better than his apparent refusal to, as one adviser said, ” choose a lane “and show leadership on the issue.
This outside adviser said the executive order for the monuments, which they brought to the White House, would be a “symbolic step” to elevate the message of the law and the order that some feel has been undermined by the administration’s inability to stop the destruction of troublesome statues and failure to convince state and local authorities to do so in other cities.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
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