President Donald Trump vowed to preserve and protect Mount Rushmore despite calls for the removal of the granite monument.
During the Fourth of July celebration that took place at Mount Rushmore on Friday, Trump celebrated the holiday and the commemorative statues considered to be the world’s largest solid granite monument.
“This monument will never be desecrated. These heroes will never be defaced. Their legacy will never, ever be destroyed. Their achievements will never be forgotten,” Trump said.
Trump also promised the audience that the legacy of the United States’ Founding Fathers would “stand forever as an eternal tribute.”
He added, “And Mount Rushmore will stand forever as an eternal tribute to our forefathers and our freedom.”
See Trump’s remarks below:
“This monument will never be desecrated, these heroes will never be defaced.”
— Bloomberg Originals (@bbgoriginals) July 4, 2020
Slamming the movement to remove Confederate history, Trump says Mount Rushmore will “stand forever as an eternal tribute to our forefathers” pic.twitter.com/zjhaxo9v0E
The president also criticized protesters, as he called them “angry mobs” who “think the American people are weak, soft, and submissive.” However, many of those calling for the removal of Mount Rushmore are tribal leaders.
Mount Rushmore, originally deemed ”The Six Grandfathers” by the Lakota Sioux, sits on what is apparently sacred land that previously belonged to local tribes.
Because of Mount Rushmore’s checkered history, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Chairman Harold Frazier released a statement calling for the removal of the monument as he criticized Trump’s visit.
“Nothing stands as a greater reminder to the Great Sioux Nation of a country that cannot keep a promise or treaty than the faces carved into our sacred land on what the United States calls Mount Rushmore,” Frazier said in the statement.
Trump’s remarks on Mount Rushmore came shortly after South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) offered a similar opinion of those calling for the removal of statues, as previously reported on IJR.
According to Noem, the campaigns and removal of Confederate-inspired monuments have been “done deliberately to discredit America’s founding principles.”
