Jan. 29, 2025, 5:58 p.m. ET5 hours ago
Chris Cameron
President Trump has reinstated a pandemic-era executive order from his first administration that seeks to
punish vandalism of monuments and statues, which President Joseph R. Biden Jr. revoked soon after taking office. Trump originally issued the order amid protests for racial justice in 2020, with some demonstrators
pulling down monuments of Confederate generals.
Jan. 29, 2025, 5:58 p.m. ET5 hours ago
Chris Cameron
Trump defended the display of Confederate monuments throughout his first term as president. In 2017, he equated their removal to “changing history” as he defended some participants in
a violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., who had gathered to protect a statue of Robert E. Lee. That statue was
later removed. Trump later
resisted efforts to rename nine southern Army bases that had been
named for Confederate generals and is now pushing for those names to be reinstated.