Trump’s administration to reinstall confederate statue torn down by protesters

The U.S. National Park Service (NPS) announced that it will reinstall a statue of Confederate General Albert Pike in Washington, D.C., more than five years after it was torn down during the 2020 racial justice protests. According to a statement from the NPS, the reinstallation supports two executive orders issued by U.S. President Donald Trump during his second term: one titled On Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful and another, Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History. The statue, which commemorates Pike for his contributions to freemasonry, was the only monument to a Confederate general in the U.S. capital prior to its removal. It was toppled and set on fire by protesters in June 2020, during nationwide demonstrations sparked by the killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis. Statues and monuments honoring the Confederacy, the faction of Southern states that seceded from the Union in the 1860s to preserve slavery became prominent targets during the 2020 protests as symbols of systemic racism and historical injustice. At the time of its removal, Trump condemned the act. The D.C. police are not doing their job as they watch a statue be ripped down & burn. These people should be immediately arrested, he wrote on Twitter, calling the incident a disgrace. The NPS stated that the statue has been in secure storage since its removal and is currently undergoing restoration. The agency aims to reinstall it by October 2025. Following his 2020 election loss, Trump returned to politics and won the presidency again in 2024, campaigning on promises to impose strict immigration controls and dismantle a range of social justice reforms enacted in the wake of Floyds death.  The post Trumps administration to reinstall confederate statue torn down by protesters appeared first on Linda Ikeji Blog.