US President Donald Trump said that people who want to take down statues as part of the anti-racism and anti-police-brutality protests that swept the US want to "overthrow the American Revolution" and to "end America.".
Many protesters have revived old debates about statues of Confederate leaders and slave owners, and in some cases, have vandalized or torn those statues down.
Protesters say that statues serve to glorify individuals rather than remember events, but Trump described those who want to remove them as "angry mobs" at his Fourth of July rally.
At Mount Rushmore, Trump announced an executive order to create a "National Garden of American Heroes," filled with statues of "our exceptional fellow citizens who, despite their flaws, placed their virtues, their talents, and their lives in the service of our Nation."
The protests in the US kickstarted debates about other countries' statues, leading to UK protesters toppling a 125-year-old slave trader statue and throwing it in a river.
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