President Trump issued an executive order on Friday that instructed federal law enforcement authorities to prosecute people who damage federal monuments or statues and that threatened to withhold funding from local governments that fail to protect their own statues from vandals.

The order, which Trump announced on Twitter, comes as he seeks to seize on a cultural divide in the US during his re-election campaign, suggesting that Democrats are waging an assault on the nation’s history.

“Anarchists and Left-wing extremists have sought to advance a fringe ideology that paints the United States of America as fundamentally unjust,” Trump writes in the order, which is titled, “Protecting American Monuments, Memorials and Statues and Combating Recent Criminal Violence.”

The order adds: “Key targets in the violent extremists’ campaign against our country are public monuments, memorials and statues.”

It is a response to the toppling of statues and monuments in recent weeks after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis prompted protests for police reform and social justice.

But the order offers little in the way of new authority. It directs federal law enforcement officials to prosecute “to the fullest extent permitted” people who violate existing federal laws that already make it a crime to damage or destroy a monument or statue.

The order also urges prosecution of anyone who is caught “attacking, removing or defacing depictions of Jesus or other religious figures or religious artwork.”

The army will remove photographs of candidates in promotion board hearings, senior officials said, as part of an effort to address why so many black officers are being passed over in favour of their white counterparts.

President Trump signed an executive to encourage changes in policing, including new restrictions on chokeholds. But the order will have little immediate impact, and does not address calls for new focus on racism.

The platinum-selling country trio, The Dixie Chicks have changed their name to the Chicks. The group made the change stealthily, releasing a new video as the Chicks and adjusting its social media presence. Aunt Jemima, the syrup and pancake mix brand, will change its name and image amid an ongoing backlash.

A statue of Theodore Roosevelt will be removed from the front of the Museum of Natural History in New York. The equestrian memorial has long prompted objections as a symbol of colonialism and racism.

New York Times News Service