Things continue to go from bad to worse for President Donald Trump.
Following a White Nationalist protest that turned ugly in Charlottesville, Virginia, Donald Trump send out some very mixed signals in two back-to-back statements last weekend. If that weren't enough for his detractors to get incensed over, he then undid any positive reinforcements by going off on what is now seen as a Nazi-defending tirade during a press conference in New York City on Tuesday. Now, the President of the United States is back to the same train of thought, this time using some guilt tactics to express his disappointment that symbols of the Confederacy are being removed.
https://twitter.com/_/status/898171544236687361
https://twitter.com/_/status/898172999945392131
In several tweets that he posted on Thursday morning (August 17th), Trump stated that he was thought it was "so sad" that the history and culture of the United States was being "ripped apart" by those who have been removing Confederate statues and other monuments devoted to honoring or celebrating values and traditions that are now seen by many Americans as, at the very least, offensive to minorities. Trump also added that, while you "can't change history," you can "learn from it." He applies the current line of thinking, in terms of removing any physical manifestation or reference that can be seen in public to Robert E. Lee or Stonewall Jackson, to something that could harm the images or former Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Both of those men were also slave owners at one time in history.
Donald Trump closed his mini-rant by saying that the "beauty" in the cities where these statues and monuments were being removed won't be able to be comparably replaced. Only time will tell if that's true, but one thing is for sure: the social media blow back against the President shouldn't be ending anytime soon.
Update: It looks like there's now a movement to Confederate symbols removed from the U.S. Capitol building as well.