Trump has also blown up protests against racism, claiming that demonstrators have behaved badly. (File)
US President Donald Trump said Monday he refused to remove Theodore Roosevelt's statue in front of the New York Natural History Museum.
The move was announced on Sunday and is taking place amid protests against racism in the United States and worldwide after an unarmed black man, George Floyd, died in police custody in the United States on May 25.
The statue shows Roosevelt on a horse with an Indian and an African at his side.
Many have said that the statue symbolizes racial discrimination and colonial expansion.
The Mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, said on Sunday that the city was in favor of the museum's request to remove the statue because it "portrays black and indigenous peoples as subjugated and racially inferior."
"Ridiculous, don't do it," Trump said in a tweet Monday.
Ridiculous, don't do it! https://t.co/VYez8p9AJh
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), June 22, 2020
In the ongoing anti-racism demonstrations, demonstrators in the United States and around the world have called for the authorities to dismantle monuments to honor the slave-friendly Confederates and the architects of the European colonies.
Trump blew up the protests, claiming demonstrators behaved badly.
"The carefree left-wing mob tries to destroy our history, desecrate our monuments – our beautiful monuments -, tear down our statues and punish, refuse and persecute anyone who does not meet his demands for absolute and complete control. We are not . " compliant, "the US President told supporters at a rally last week.
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and published from a syndicated feed.)
