USNN World News

President Trump announced Friday that he signed an executive order to protect American monuments, memorials and statues and threatened those who try to pull them down with “long prison time.” “I just had the privilege of signing a very strong Executive Order protecting American Monuments, Memorials, and Statues - and combatting recent Criminal Violence,” Trump tweeted. “Long prison terms for these lawless acts against our Great Country!” The new order enforces laws prohibiting the desecration of public monuments, the vandalism of government property, and recent acts of violence, withholds federal support tied to public spaces from state and local governments that have failed to protect public monuments, and withdraws federal grants for jurisdictions and law enforcement agencies that fail to stop their desecration. It also provides assistance for protecting the federal statues. Meanwhile on Friday evening, Attorney General Bill Barr directed the creation of a task force to counter anti-government extremists, specifically naming those who support the far-right “boogaloo” movement and those who identify as Antifa. The task force will be headed by Craig Carpenito, the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, and Erin Nealy Cox, U.S. Attorney for the district of Northern Texas, and will be composed of U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, the FBI and other relevant departments, according to a press release. The group will share information with local and state law enforcement and will provide training on identifying anti-government extremists, according to an internal Justice Department memo. The president has been teasing his order related to memorials all week, as historic monuments and statues have become the targets of anger and vandalism during Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of George Floyd's police custody death in Minneapolis at the end of May. DC'S CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATE WANTS 'PROBLEMATIC' LINCOLN STATUE REMOVED FROM LINCOLN PARK placeholder The initial statues under fire were Confederate soldiers and generals largely in the South due to the treatment of African-Americans, and even some high-level military officials called for the renaming of Army bases named after Confederate generals. The anger has since spread to monuments of former presidents and others deemed to be “colonizers,” such as Christopher Columbus, and even some who fought against slavery. On Friday night, protesters plan to try to tear down the Emancipation Statue of Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln Park. The statue shows the 16th president holding the Emancipation Proclamation next to a kneeling, shackled slave. Protesters say it does not depict the role slaves had in securing their own freedom. TRUMP ISSUES WARNING AMID VANDALISM, EFFORT TO TOPPLE ANDREW JACKSON STATUE Washington, D.C.’s congressional delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, said Tuesday she would introduce a House bill to remove the “problematic” statue. Last weekend protesters tied ropes and tried to topple a statue of former president Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square Park, but were stopped by law enforcement. In San Francisco, protesters defaced and toppled a statue of Ulysses S. Grant, who led the Union Army during the Civil War. Protesters that same night also tore down statues of St. Junipero Serra and Francis Scott Key, who wrote the lyrics to "The Star-Spangled Banner." This week McConnell listed the monuments that have been defaced in recent days—noting that in Portland, Ore., a mob “graffitied a statue of our first President, pulled it down, and burned an American flag over his head. This is George Washington.” placeholder McConnell said another Washington statue was defaced in Baltimore, a statue of Thomas Jefferson was ripped down in Portland, and others were targeted. “This is the general and first President who built our nation, and the author of the Declaration of Independence. Genius statesmen who helped begin this grand experiment that has brought freedom to hundreds of millions and saved the world a few times for good measure,” McConnell said. “And yet a crazy fringe is treating their monuments like vanity statues of tinhorn tyrants.” He added: “Our Founding Fathers are being roped to the ground like they were Saddam Hussein. The list goes on.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP McConnell was referring to the famous moment in 2003 when a 40-foot bronze statue of the Iraqi dictator was roped and pulled to the ground, symbolizing the end of his regime. Fox News' John Roberts, Jake Gibson and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

National News

Trump signs executive order to protect American monuments, memorials and statues

by USNN World NewsJune 26, 2020June 26, 2020

The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking. Population: 328.2 million (2019) Trending Capital: Washington, D.C. Unemployment rate: 14.7% (Apr 2020) President: Donald Trump

National News

House passes DC statehood bill: Here’s how it would work

by USNN World NewsJune 26, 2020May 11, 2025

National News

‘I hope it’s true’: Trump responds to claim he was chosen by God

by USNN World NewsJune 26, 2020June 26, 2020

National News

Biden says he would use federal power to require Americans to wear masks in public

by USNN World NewsJune 26, 2020June 26, 2020

National News

Joe Biden ‘greeted’ by Trump supporters outside Pennsylvania campaign stop

by USNN World NewsJune 26, 2020June 26, 2020

National News

Trump fields audience questions on mail-in voting, riots, says Democrats ‘destroying our country’

by USNN World NewsJune 26, 2020June 26, 2020

Trump tells 'Hannity' town hall crime in these Dem-run cities 'worse than Afghanistan'

National News

Trump says violence in Chicago, Baltimore, other US cities like ‘living in hell,’ in ‘Hannity’ town hall

by USNN World NewsJune 26, 2020June 26, 2020

National News

BET founder Robert Johnson says Dems taking black voters ‘for granted,’ calls for BLM to form party

by USNN World NewsJune 25, 2020August 4, 2024

National News

Biden cancer nonprofit paid its top execs millions. It spent little to eradicate cancer

by USNN World NewsJune 25, 2020June 25, 2020

National News

NASCAR: Driver’s ‘Hate Crime Noose’ Was Really A Garage Pull Rope

by USNN World NewsJune 24, 2020February 26, 2025

National News

Space expert says 110 people is ‘minimum number’ to start life on Mars

by USNN World NewsJune 24, 2020June 24, 2020

National News

Insurgents from the left threaten to upend Dem Party plans in Tuesday primaries

by USNN World NewsJune 23, 2020February 26, 2025

NATIONAL NEWS

Loaded gun found in jail where Jeffrey Epstein killed himself

By Associated Press Federal investigators found a loaded gun Thursday that had been smuggled into the jail where Jeffrey Epstein killed himself last summer, following a weeklong ...

Trump campaign sues CNN over ‘false and defamatory’ statements, seeks millions in damages

By Brian Flood, Brooke Singman | Fox News EXCLUSIVE: President Trump’s re-election campaign filed a libel lawsuit against CNN on Friday for publishing “false and defamatory” statements about seeking Russia’s help in the ...

Will female, youth and minority voters lose interest as 2020 race comes down to 3 white septuagenarians?

By Paul Steinhauser | Fox News Sen. Elizabeth Warren was the last major female candidate running in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. And with the suspension of the ...

Conway: Trump spoke about cutting deficit, not Medicare and Social Security, at Fox News town hall

By Charles Creitz | Fox News President Trump was not talking about cutting entitlement benefits when he spoke about the U.S. economy during a Fox News town hall in Scranton, Pa., on ...

Fox News to host Bernie Sanders town hall with Bret Baier, Martha MacCallum

By Brian Flood | Fox News Fox News will host a second town hall event with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Monday in Detroit, Fox News Media President and ...

Trump visiting Tennessee after deadly tornadoes

By Adam Shaw | Fox News President Trump on Friday is visiting parts of Tennessee that were hit by tornadoes earlier this week, leaving dozens dead and many more ...

GOP candidate Dalia al-Aqidi on challenging Ilhan Omar, being ignored by mainstream media

By Joseph A. Wulfsohn, Brian Flood | Fox News Media Angle is a column offering perspectives on today’s media landscape from the newsmakers themselves. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn, has become ...

Pelosi says ‘element of misogyny’ in race as Warren becomes latest female candidate to bow out

By Ronn Blitzer | Fox News House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she is “encouraged” by the ideological debates within the Democratic Party now represented by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and former ...

Trump, at Fox News Town Hall, suggests Biden isn’t competent: ‘There’s something going on there’

By Gregg Re | Fox News President Trump, speaking at a Fox News Town Hall in Joe Biden’s hometown of Scranton, Pa., on Thursday evening, openly suggested ...

Bloomberg News says it will resume ‘normal coverage of the election’ after co-founder exits Democratic race

By Sam Dorman | Fox News Bloomberg News has said it will resume its normal coverage of the 2020 presidential election, abandoning its recently implemented policy of not investigating either ...

Mike Bloomberg suspends presidential campaign after Super Tuesday flop

By Paul Steinhauser, Kelly Phares | Fox News Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg suspended his presidential campaign Wednesday after spending record amounts from his own fortune on an ...

AOC-aligned progressive candidates fall flat in Super Tuesday contests

By James Levinson | Fox News Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s progressive candidates did not have a “super” Tuesday in the first congressional primaries of the 2020 cycle. The Democratic establishment, on ...