This story was originally published by HuffPost and is reproduced here through the Climate Desk partnership.

Amid a national uprising for racial justice and a deadly pandemic that’s disproportionately impacting Black, Latinx and Native communities, President Donald Trump is promising lengthy prison sentences for anyone who destroys or dismantles a monument to a slave-owning president or leader of the Confederacy.

At a Saturday campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Trump came to the defense of Confederate leaders like Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, whose statues have been defaced and removed in recent weeks. “The unhinged left-wing mob is trying to vandalize our history, desecrate our monuments ― our beautiful monuments,” he said, adding that “they want to demolish our heritage.”

On December 4, 2017, President Donald Trump issued a proclamation that reduced Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument to almost half its original size. Credit: Bureau of Land Management

Chris D’Angelo is a reporter for HuffPost, based in Washington, D.C. Email High Country News at editor@hcn.org or submit a letter to the editor.

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Chris D’Angelo covers public lands, wildlife and environmental policy. He is a co-founder and reporter for Public Domain.