Trump administration puts up controversial statue again

The restored statue of General Albert Pike is to be on display again in the capital in October, the National Park Service, the authority responsible for monuments, announced on Monday (local time). The move is in line with the Trump administration's guidelines, it said.

The statue was inaugurated in 1901, the authority added. According to the US media, there have been repeated public disputes over its removal in recent decades.

Protests spark debate about the culture of remembrance

Following the killing of African-American George Floyd in a brutal police operation in 2020, there were mass protests against racism and police violence in the USA. They also sparked a debate about the country's culture of remembrance.

During the protests at the time, the statue of the southern general, just a few minutes' walk from the Capitol, was smeared, brought down and set on fire by demonstrators, according to media reports. Trump was in the middle of his first term and called this "a disgrace to our country".

It was not the only incident of its kind. As part of the Black Lives Matter protests, demonstrators across the country toppled several statues of historical figures they associated with racism.

Trump brings back controversial historical symbols

With the announcement that the almost three-and-a-half-metre bronze sculpture will be reinstalled, Trump is pushing ahead with his efforts to bring back historical Confederate symbols into the public space, wrote the New York Times.

The Confederates fought for the independence of the southern states and the preservation of slavery during the American Civil War (1861-1865). According to the New York Times, General Pike was also a Confederate diplomat who worked with Native American tribes who held slaves themselves and sided with the Confederates.

In June, Trump ordered the US military to return several bases to their former names - names that originally honored Southern generals. However, the Pentagon used a trick: it officially named other namesakes, not the generals themselves, but deserving soldiers with the same surnames as the Southern generals.

Prior to this, Trump had already signed a decree calling on authorities and local bodies to restore public monuments that had been removed in the course of protests.