--- title: Donald Trump Blames 'Both Sides' for Charlottesville Clashes description: President Trump said Tuesday that the "alt-left" bears some of the blame for the violent rallies in Charlottesville, Va. this weekend canonical: https://time.com/4902129/president-donald-trump-both-sides-charlottesville/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-15T20:58:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T04:43:03.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Again Blames 'Both Sides' for Charlottesville Violence og:description: "What about the alt-left that came charging at the—as you say—the alt-right" og:url: https://time.com/4902129/president-donald-trump-both-sides-charlottesville/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta4b5b061943b01bb/6988d9db096a9479f769f29b/donald-trump-charlottesville-press-conference.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3490 og:image:height: 1963 og:image:alt: President Trump Speaks On Infrastructure Meeting Held At Trump Tower og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Again Blames 'Both Sides' for Charlottesville Violence twitter:description: "What about the alt-left that came charging at the—as you say—the alt-right" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta4b5b061943b01bb/6988d9db096a9479f769f29b/donald-trump-charlottesville-press-conference.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Again Blames 'Both Sides' for Charlottesville Violence > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Updated: Dec 13, 2023 4:43 AM UTCPublished: Aug 15, 2017 8:58 PM UTC  President Donald Trump delivers remarks following a meeting on infrastructure at Trump Tower on Aug. 15, 2017 in New York City. President Donald Trump delivers remarks following a meeting on infrastructure at Trump Tower on Aug. 15, 2017 in New York City.Drew Angerer/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Updated: Dec 13, 2023 4:43 AM UTCPublished: Aug 15, 2017 8:58 PM UTC President [Donald Trump](http://time.com/4899813/donald-trump-charlottes-ville-remarks-transcript/) said Tuesday that anti-racism protesters who he called the “alt-left” bear some of the blame for the violent rallies in Charlottesville, Va., returning to his [original comments that “many sides”](http://time.com/4898272/donald-trump-charlottesville-violence-rally/) were responsible for the deadly clashes in which a [man believed to be a white supremacist drove his car](http://time.com/4900814/charlottesville-driver-accused-beating-mother/) into a crowd of anti-racism protesters. “What about the alt-left that came charging at the — as you say — the alt-right? Do they have any semblance of guilt?” Trump said Tuesday afternoon during a press conference in the lobby of Trump Tower. “You had a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent,” he said, adding that “there’s blame on both sides.” Politicians of all parties criticized Trump’s initial statement on Saturday’s violence, in which he also blamed both sides — white supremacists, including some with Nazi flags, as well as anti-racism protesters. On Monday, Trump [condemned](http://time.com/4899813/donald-trump-charlottes-ville-remarks-transcript/) the violent attack on a crowd of counter protesters that killed a 32-year-old woman and injured 19 others, saying “racism is evil.” But with his Tuesday press conference, ostensibly about infrastructure, Trump returned to his widely panned “both sides” approach. “You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people on both sides,” Trump said Tuesday. “You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of — to them — a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name.” The park — where white supremacist groups had gathered to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee — was renamed Emancipation Park in June. “Are we going to take down statues to George Washington? How about Thomas Jefferson?” Trump said, identifying both former presidents as slave owners. “You know what? It’s fine. You’re changing history, you’re changing culture. And you had people — and I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists because they should be condemned totally — but you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists, and the press has treated them very unfairly.” The remarks drew quick condemnation again [from Republicans](https://twitter.com/senorrinhatch/status/897560902467112960) and [Democrats](https://twitter.com/brianschatz/status/897559129392168960). Meanwhile, former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke thanked Trump for his “honesty & courage.” Asked, as he was leaving, whether he plans to visit Charlottesville, Trump made reference only to his winery in the city and called Charlottesville a “great place.” “I own actually one of the largest wineries in the United States,” he said. “It’s in Charlottesville.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4902129/president-donald-trump-both-sides-charlottesville/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4902129/president-donald-trump-both-sides-charlottesville/"},"headline":"President Trump Again Blames 'Both Sides' for Charlottesville Violence","datePublished":"2017-08-15T20:58:05.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T04:43:03.000Z","description":"\"What about the alt-left that came charging at the—as you say—the alt-right\"","url":"https://time.com/4902129/president-donald-trump-both-sides-charlottesville/","keywords":["Donald Trump","White House","Virginia","Charlottesville","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta4b5b061943b01bb/6988d9db096a9479f769f29b/donald-trump-charlottesville-press-conference.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta4b5b061943b01bb/6988d9db096a9479f769f29b/donald-trump-charlottesville-press-conference.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Speaks On Infrastructure Meeting Held At Trump Tower","caption":"President Trump Speaks On Infrastructure Meeting Held At Trump Tower","creditText":"Drew Angerer/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4902129/president-donald-trump-both-sides-charlottesville/","name":"President Trump Again Blames 'Both Sides' for Charlottesville Violence"}}]}] ```