President Trump designated himself Monuments Man, and was tasked with personally circulating images of suspects accused of vandalizing a statue of Andrew Jackson in the nation’s capital earlier this week.
Trump tweeted 15 flyers from the US Park Police Department asking for public help to identify people accused of disfiguring the statue outside the White House on Monday night.
Protesters spray-painted the “killer” at the base of the monument and tried, but failed to knock down the statue.
The statue has been chosen for Jackson’s defense and role in the violent displacement of Native Americans.
The statue is among several in the United States and around the world that have been damaged or shot down during civil unrest by the police murder of George Floyd.
Trump, who offered no comment on the bulletins, defended the monument Monday night, calling it “magnificent.”
“Numerous people arrested in DC for the shameful vandalism, in Lafayette Park, of the magnificent Statue of Andrew Jackson, in addition to the deterioration of the exterior of the Church of St. John across the street,” he tweeted at the time.
The president released the flyers a day after he signed an executive order aimed at cracking down on protesters.
The order calls for harsh prison terms and threatens to “retain federal support from state and local law enforcement agencies that have failed to protect public monuments, monuments and statues from destruction or vandalism.”
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