President Trump reinstated an executive order on Wednesday forcing local governments to toughen up penalties for those who vandalize monuments or risk losing some federal funding.
Trump, 78, issued the directive in anticipation of America’s 250th anniversary on July 4, 2026, over apparent concerns that “‘pro-Hamas-related vandalism” could tarnish the nation’s sesquicentennial.
The order, “Protecting America’s Monuments from Vandalism,” reinstates the June 2020 executive action Trump issued in response to weeks of civil unrest following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
Trump’s first term directive was rescinded by former President Joe Biden in May 2021.
“Recent examples of conduct necessitating reinstatement of this order include pro-Hamas-related vandalism of historically significant public monuments and related assaults on Federal officers and employees following October 7, 2023, including the vandalism of the exterior of the Department of the Treasury and of statues in Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C. on June 8, 2024, and the assaults on Federal officers and vandalism of the Christopher Columbus Memorial Fountain and Freedom Bell at Union Station in Washington, D.C. on July 24, 2024,” the new order stated.
Trump’s action referred to multiple anti-Israel protests that took place in Washington last summer.
The massive June 8 demonstration saw smoke bombs hurled on the White House lawn and a statue of Andrew Jackson near the executive mansion vandalized with the phrases “Free Gaza” and “Boycott Israel Products.”
The July 24 protest over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress resulted in a replica of the Liberty Bell outside Washington, DC’s Union Station being defaced with pro-Hamas symbols and anti-Israel messages, including “F–k Israel,” “Abolish Israel,” “All zionists are bastards” as well as “F–k Capitalists.”
American flags flying outside Union Station were also torn down, burned and replaced with Palestinian flags during the shocking protest.
Trump’s order mandates that anyone who “destroys, damages, vandalizes, or desecrates a monument, memorial, or statue within the United States or otherwise vandalizes government property” be prosecuted “to the fullest extent permitted under Federal law.”
The maximum sentence for someone convicted of willfully damaging federal property is 10 years’ imprisonment.
Local governments and law enforcement agencies could also face financial retribution for not protecting monuments, statues and memorials from vandalism under Trump’s executive order.
“It is the policy of the United States, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to withhold Federal support tied to public spaces from State and local governments that have failed to protect public monuments, memorials, and statues from destruction or vandalism,” the order stated.
The order also called for the establishment of a “White House Task Force on Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday” – which will be chaired by the president – and the building of a “National Garden of American Heroes” as “expeditiously as possible.”
The garden will house statues honoring 250 Americans.
