Trump celebrates installation of slave owner statue in Washington [View all]

President Donald Trump has celebrated the installation of a statue of Caesar Rodney, a Founding Father and slave owner, near the White House, encouraging Americans to go and see it.

The imposing bronze figure, highlighted by the president ahead of America’s 250th birthday, has been a source of controversy after it was taken down at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.

A Delaware delegate to the Continental Congress, Rodney played a crucial role in the fight for independence from Great Britain. On July 1, 1776, he received word that his state’s delegation was deadlocked on whether or not to break free — and that his vote could tip the balance.

“Although he suffered from asthma and facial cancer, Rodney immediately set forth on a 80-mile overnight journey by horseback from Dover, Delaware, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday evening. “Enduring a raging thunderstorm, he arrived 250 years ago this very day, July 2, 1776, to cast his decisive vote, and secure America’s glorious destiny of Freedom and Independence.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-celebrates-installation-of-slave-owner-statue-in-washington/ar-AA279F4r