Trump employs sarcasm a lot. So you have to learn how to interpret his off-the-cuff comments.
When he said they were “very nice people” he meant it sarcastically....
as if to say, “yeah sure, these scalawags are very nice people.”
No he didn't - he wasn't even talking about them at all when the said that. He was talking about how there were "very fine people" on both sides of the debate as to whether or not the statues should come down.