The incident drew the ire of President Donald Trump, who criticized the police’s failure to immediately arrest the vandals as “disgrace to our country.” Pike was a revered leader of the local chapter of the Freemasons, who lobbied Congress for a public plinth on the condition his likeness be depicted in civilian clothes, not a military outfit. Trump stated that his administration would determine whether the so-called “revisionist movement” aimed to “perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history, inappropriately minimize the value of certain historical events or figures, or include any other improper partisan ideology.” His Secretary of the Interior, a position with power over federal resources including parks and publicly accessible land, was tasked with the reinstating the felled monuments.
Author: Tessa Solomon
Published at: 2025-08-04 21:30:14
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