Former President Donald Trump said Wednesday that American “culture is being destroyed” in regards to the removal of the 131-year-old Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond, Virginia.
“Just watched as a massive crane took down the magnificent and very famous statue of ‘Robert E. Lee On His Horse’ in Richmond, Virginia. It has long been recognized as a beautiful piece of bronze sculpture. To add insult to injury, those who support this ‘taking’ now plan to cut it into three pieces, and throw this work of art into storage prior to its complete desecration,” Trump said.
Trump, in a lengthy statement, decries the removal of Richmond’s Robert E. Lee statue, calling it “magnificent.”
“If only we had Robert E. Lee to command our troops in Afghanistan… What an embarrassment we are suffering because we don’t have the genius of a Robert E. Lee!” pic.twitter.com/cRoLoUp5br
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) September 8, 2021
“Robert E. Lee is considered by many Generals to be the greatest strategist of them all. President [Abraham] Lincoln wanted him to command the North, in which case the war would have been over in one day. Robert E. Lee instead chose the other side because of his great love for Virginia, except for Gettysburg, would have won the war,” Trump continued. “He should be remembered as perhaps the greatest unifying force after the war was over, ardent in his resolve to bring the North and South together through many means of reconciliation and imploring his soldiers to do their duty in becoming good citizens of this Country.”
“Our culture is being destroyed and our history and heritage, both good and bad, are being extinguished by the Radical Left, and we can’t let that happen! If only we had Robert E. Lee to command our troops in Afghanistan, that disaster would have ended in a complete and total victory many years ago,” the statement said. “What an embarrassment we are suffering because we don’t have the genius of a Robert E. Lee!” (RELATED: Virginia Removes 131-Year-Old Robert E. Lee Statue Following Legal Battle)
Ten days after the death of George Floyd, Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam announced in June, 2020, that the statue would come down due to its symbolism of Virginia’s plan to “launch a new campaign to undo the results of the Civil War by other means.” The governor was recollecting the historical unveiling of the statue in May, 1890, where the people reportedly waved Confederate flags.
Richmond residents sued the state in an effort to block the statue’s removal in connection to an 1889 acquisition agreement, a legal decision where state officials accepted ownership of the Lee statue. The state’s Supreme Court ruled Sept. 2 that the descendants of the official’s had no legal property interest to keep the statue.
Another statue of Lee, gifted to the Virginia state Capitol in 1909, was removed in December, 2020, on Northam’s behest.