Trump signs executive order ‘to protect statues’, threatens long prison terms

Donald Trump has signed an executive order threatening “long prison terms” while continuing to criticize widespread protests to remove Confederate-era monuments and other statues across the United States in the wake of renewed calls to dismantle symbols of supremacy. white.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Twitter that “those who destroy our monuments will be prosecuted to their fullest extent.”

It was not immediately clear what is in the order, as federal law already prohibits vandalism or the destruction of certain monuments punishable by up to 10 years in prison. American sheriffs could be deployed as security, according to reports.

The president, who has called for “retribution” against vandals amid protests against racial injustice, has been furious at protesters who attack statues, including monuments to the Confederacy.

Outside the White House on Monday, protesters attempted to tear down a statue of former President Andrew Jackson, who has been the target of protests as a slave owner and supporter of the Indian Expulsion Act.

The next day, the president called on the federal government “to arrest anyone who destroys or destroys any federal monument, statue or other property in the United States with up to 10 years in prison, under the Veterans Monument Preservation Act or other laws that may be relevant. “

But across the United States, protesters have toppled various monuments to former Confederates, erected in the Jim Crow era after the Civil War, as various city and state officials have argued that it is time for those symbols to be removed. from public view.

On June 19, the president called for the “immediate” arrest of a group of people who downed a statue of Confederate General Albert Pike in the nation’s capital.

The president has also been criticized for his militarized response to protests during the nation’s coronavirus crisis, as several states see dramatic increases in cases and hospitalizations.

“I wish he cared more about living Americans than about dead Confederates,” Washington Governor and frequent Trump critic Jay Inslee told CNN after the president’s latest order.

California Congresswoman Maxine Waters also condemned the President’s threats this week, saying that “one would expect the President of the United States to rise to the level of leadership our country needs to tackle the deadly rise in coronavirus cases in the United States. “

“Instead, we are left with Donald Trump, an incompetent and ruthless man who is more focused on saving the statues of slavers, Confederate generals and racists than on protecting the health of living and breathing Americans,” he said.