Trump donates $100,000 of his presidential salary to repair national monuments damaged by protesters

DONALD Trump pledged $100,000 of his salary to repair the national monuments that were damaged during the police brutality protests. A quarter of the president’s $400,000 annual pay will be given to the National Park Service to restore the ruined monuments, Trump said. “I promised YOU I would not take a dime of salary as […]

DONALD Trump pledged $100,000 of his salary to repair the national monuments that were damaged during the police brutality protests.

A quarter of the president’s $400,000 annual pay will be given to the National Park Service to restore the ruined monuments, Trump said.

AFP or licensors

Trump said he would donate a quarter of his year’y salary to reparing the monuments [/caption]

AP:Associated Press

An image of George Floyd is projected on the base of the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee on June 8 in Richmond, VA[/caption]

“I promised YOU I would not take a dime of salary as your President,” Trump tweeted on Friday.

“I donate the entire $400,000! It is my honor to give $100,000 to @NatlParkService to help repair and restore our GREAT National Monuments.

“So important to our American History! Thank You!!”

Confederate statues were damaged, destroyed or removed in the wake of George Floyd‘s police custody death in Minneapolis.

His brutal filmed arrest on May 25 prompted mass outrage during the coronavirus lockdown and mass unemployment, and prompted Black Lives Matter protests all across America.

EPA

The statue of Andrew Jackson is seen defaced and with ropes on it after protesters attempted to pull it down in Washington DC on 22 June[/caption]

Getty Images - Getty

The pedestal where the statue of Confederate general Albert Pike remains empty after it was toppled by protesters at Judiciary square in Washington, DC on June 20[/caption]

Demonstrators mainly targeted monuments to slaveholders or Confederate officers in major cities in the USA – but some businesses and buildings were also damaged during the chaos.

It’s not clear how much of Trump’s $100K donation will go towards fixing them.

Officials in areas ransacked by riots and looting have estimated tens of millions of dollars in damage to property, buildings and public works – including these controversial statues.

In Portland, around $2.3 million worth of damage was reported in the Oregon city by early July, according to the Oregonian.

Elsewhere, in Denver, business owners are contending with $2 million in damage after over two months of civil unrest, the Denver Post reported.

A majority of America’s Confederate statues were built between the 1900s and 1920s and again in the 1950s and 1960s, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

In the early 1900s, states were enacting Jim Crow laws to disenfranchise black Americans, while the civil rights movement of the early 1960s pushed back against racial discrimination.

While some southerners claim these monuments are a testament to their history and were erected to honor Civil War heroes, others believe they promote white supremacy.

AP:Associated Press

Change.org and the George Floyd Foundation launched ‘A Monumental Change: The George Floyd Hologram Memorial Project’ in Richmond [/caption]