--- title: Donald Trump Blasts Removing Confederate Statues on Twitter description: President Donald Trump doubled down Thursday on opposing the removal of "our beautiful" Confederate statues and monuments from public spaces canonical: https://time.com/4904510/donald-trump-twitter-confederate-statues/ author: Julia Zorthian article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-17T14:41:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:29:29.652Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump: It's 'Sad' to See U.S. Culture 'Ripped Apart' by Removing Statues og:description: "Who's next, Washington? Jefferson? So foolish!" og:url: https://time.com/4904510/donald-trump-twitter-confederate-statues/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt02b4ad0b8789c977/6988da17656a3f299ebd1523/trump-sad-confederate-monuments-tweets.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3278 og:image:height: 1844 og:image:alt: trump sad confederate monuments tweets og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump: It's 'Sad' to See U.S. Culture 'Ripped Apart' by Removing Statues twitter:description: "Who's next, Washington? Jefferson? So foolish!" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt02b4ad0b8789c977/6988da17656a3f299ebd1523/trump-sad-confederate-monuments-tweets.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Says It's 'Sad' to See U.S. Culture 'Ripped Apart' by Removing Confederate Statues > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### 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. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=18255f97-169d-4561-85f7-745744f7b1fa&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: President Trump Again Blames 'Both Sides' for Charlottesville Violence [Watch (HLS stream): President Trump Again Blames 'Both Sides' for Charlottesville Violence](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/EzwfOun0.m3u8) (1:32)  _Published 2017-08-15. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that anti-racism protesters bear some of the blame for the violent rallies in Charlottesville, returning to his original comments that "both sides" were responsible for the deadly clashes._  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Aug 17, 2017 2:41 PM UTC  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Aug 17, 2017 2:41 PM UTC President [Donald Trump](http://time.com/4904473/republicans-charlottesville-response-donald-trump/) doubled down Thursday on opposing [the removal](http://time.com/4901801/charlottesville-protests-confederate-statue-removal-accelerated/) of “our beautiful” Confederate statues and monuments [from public spaces,](http://time.com/4902514/durham-confederate-statue-future/) making clear he has no intention of backing down amid a torrent of widespread criticism over his response to racially-charged violence last weekend in Charlottesville, Va. Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments,” Trump said in a series of morning Twitter posts. 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!” Trump has endured bipartisan criticism this week for sympathizing with the white nationalist protestors who rallied in Charlottesville, one of whom police say ran his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one person and injuring more than a dozen others. In his tweets, Trump made an argument that [white nationalist groups themselves have used](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/17/us/politics/trump-charlottesville-confederate-statues.html) for keeping Confederate monuments in public. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/898169407213645824) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/898171544236687361) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/898172999945392131) Trump [has compared](http://time.com/4902144/donald-trump-charlottesville-blame-both-sides-kkk-nazi/) Confederate Generals Lee and Stonewall Jackson to Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson because Washington and Jefferson were both slaveowners. But historians [have scratched their heads at his recent comments](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/08/16/historians-no-mr-president-washington-and-jefferson-are-not-the-same-as-confederate-generals/?) drawing equivalency between two founding fathers of the U.S. and two Generals who rebelled against the country. Meanwhile, descendants of the Confederate generals Trump listed have come out against the violence and in support of moving their ancestors’ statues. The great-great-grandson of Robert E. Lee, [in an interview with CNN](http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/16/us/robert-e-lees-grandson-comments-on-statue-removal/index.html) earlier this week, condemned the violence in Charlottesville and said it would be “fine” for cities to remove their Confederate statues if that was their choice. Two great-great-grandsons of Stonewall Jackson also called on [their town of Richmond, Va.](http://time.com/4903950/richmond-confederate-monuments-avenue/) to remove all Confederate statues. “Confederate monuments like the Jackson statue were never intended as benign symbols,” they wrote in a letter published by [_Slate_](http://www.slate.com/articles/news%5Fand%5Fpolitics/politics/2017/08/stonewall%5Fjackson%5Fs%5Fgrandsons%5Fthe%5Fmonuments%5Fmust%5Fgo.html). “Rather, they were the clearly articulated artwork of white supremacy.” ## Transcript I've condemned neo- Nazis, I've condemned many different groups, but not all of those people were neo- Nazis, believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists. I think there's blame on both sides. You look at both sides I think there's blame on both sides, and I have no doubt about it. What about the alt- left? They came charging, as you say, at the alt- right. Do they have any semblance of guilt? [ CROSSTALK ]. Let me ask you this, what about the fact they came charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs, Do they have any problem? I think they do. There was a group on this side, you can call them the left, you've just called them the left, that came violently attacking the other group. So you can say what you want, but that's they way it is. You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down, to them, a very, very important statue, And the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name . >> [ UNKNOWN ] George Washington was a slave owner. Was George Washington a slave owner? So, will George Washington now lose his status? Excuse me. Are we going to take down statues to George Washington How about Thomas Jefferson? What do you think about Thomas Jefferson? You like him? I do love Thomas Jefferson. Okay good. Are we gonna take down the statue? Cuz he was a major slave owner. Now are we gonna take down his statue? So you know what? It's fine. 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