President Donald Trump on Wednesday vowed to defend statues of Confederate leaders during a trip to North Carolina, saying, “we’re not ashamed of our country,” the Daily Mail reports.
“We’re not ashamed in America. We’re not ashamed of anything,” Trump said in front of the Battleship North Carolina while in Wilmington, where he was designating it the first American World War II Heritage City.
“I signed a very important edict recently. Three months ago they were ripping down statues. I said you can rip them down but you’re going to serve 10 years in jail if you do. And as soon as I did that, incredibly you haven’t heard about statues coming down, have you? Statues or monuments,” he continued.
“But we’re not ashamed of our country, We’re proud of our country,” Trump said.
The president has repeatedly defended statues that honor Confederate leaders and slave owners, tweeting in August: “Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments. You can't change history, but you can learn from it. Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson - who's next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish! 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!”
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