President Donald Trump lamented pressure from the American left to tear down Confederate monuments and statues.
“Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “You can’t change history, but you can learn from it.”
Trump repeated his concerns that efforts to scrub the United States of Confederate monuments would only embolden people who decried the Founding Fathers for owning slaves.
“Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson – who’s next, Washington, Jefferson?” Trump said. “So foolish!”
The president said that the historical monuments added to the aesthetics of the entire country.
“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!” he concluded.
During his press conference at Trump Tower on Tuesday, Trump said that the decisions about monuments should be left to the representative governments.
“I would say that is up to a local town, community or the federal government, depending on where it is located,” he said after reporters asked him about statues of Robert E. Lee.