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Accuracy isn't his strong suit.
By Isaac Serna-Diez — Written on Sep 09, 2021
Since Trump’s removal from social media, he’s been limited to posting his bizarre statements to an online diary — his own website — and various radio talk shows.
But that hasn't stopped him from being as outlandish as ever.
Yesterday, Trump issued a statement on his reaction to the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond, Virginia.
Trump praised Robert E. Lee in a strange and incorrect statement.
“Just watched as a massive crane took down the magnificent and very famous,” he wrote, “statue of “Robert E. Lee On His Horse” in Richmond, Virginia.”
Trump had a very somber tone when writing about the confederate general. He was saddened to find out that the statue was being removed, and gave compliment after compliment to the man.
“Robert E. Lee is considered by many Generals to be the greatest strategist of them all,” he said, even though he lost the war and surrendered his army in Virginia in 1865.
The former president of the United States blamed the “Radical Left” for the move to take down the statue, and “to add insult to injury, those who support this 'taking' now plan to cut it into three pieces, and throw this work of art into storage prior to its complete desecration.”
The Supreme Court of Virginia passed a 7-0 vote allowing the statue to be taken down after Governor Ralph Northam ordered the statue be taken down last summer but Trump seems to have no respect for democracy.
“Our culture is being destroyed and our history and heritage, both good and bad,” wrote Trump, “are being extinguished by the Radical Left, and we can’t let that happen!”
Virginia removed the Robert E. Lee statue to promote racial equality.
Historically, Trump has been against the teaching of critical race theory, which describes the history of racism and slavery and the systemic oppression of people of color.
In an op-ed published on RealClearPolitics’ website, he said “Students are being subjected to a new curriculum designed to brainwash them,” and that CRT is “completely antithetical to everything that normal Americans of any color would wish to teach their children.”
Virginia Democrats and the people of Richmond, Virginia applauded the removal of the statue of Lee. Northam's statement called it “a tremendous win for the people of Virginia.”
“For far too long, the Lee statue stood tall in our capital and represented nothing but division and white supremacy — but it is finally coming down,” tweeted state Senator Louise Lucas.
Trump thinks Robert E. Lee would have had 'victory' in Afghanistan.
As he continued his online rant, the former president brought up the conflict in Afghanistan.
“If only we had Robert E. Lee to command our troops in Afghanistan,” he wrote, “that disaster would have ended in a complete and total victory many years ago.”
The controversial conflict in Afghanistan is something that Trump himself has flip-flopped on in the past — striking the deal to withdraw from the country and then criticizing President Biden for following through with it.
Trump's basis for this statement is unclear — needless to say Lee probably would never have made it to Afghanistan.
But accuracy doesn't seem to be a priority for the former president who also wrote that, “except for Gettysburg, [Lee] would have won the war.”
As the host and writer of 'China, If You’re Listening’ from ABC News, tweeted “Yeah man and except for the 2020 election, you would still be president.”
Lawyer Robert Kelner, tweeted, “I don’t know where to start with this one. “Except for Gettysburg” he would have won the war? Like, except for D-Day, Hitler would have won WWII?”
While Trump is no stranger to social media critiques and making controversial statements, his decrying of the statue’s takedown has to be one of the strangest yet.
Isaac Serna-Diez is a writer who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice and politics.