President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he’s issued an executive order authorizing the federal government to arrest any person who vandalizes or destroys a monument or other federal property.
The wrongdoers will face up to 10 years in prison, Trump said in a social media statement.
“This action is taken effective immediately, but may also be used retroactively for destruction or vandalism already caused. There will be no exceptions!” the president said.
Prosecutors can use the Veteran’s Memorial Preservation Act or other pertinent laws. The act, passed in 2003, says that people who willfully try or successfully injure or destroy any structure, plaque, statue, or other monument on public property commemorating service in the armed forces of the United States shall be fined, imprisoned up to 10 years, or both.
“Numerous people are in jail, or are going to jail today,” Trump told reporters outside the White House Tuesday morning before leaving for Arizona.
“We’re looking at long-term jail sentences for these vandals and these hoodlums and these anarchists and agitators. Call them whatever you want, some people don’t like that language, but that’s what they are. They’re bad people. They don’t love our country.”
The order reinforces existing law, Trump asserted.
Two people were arrested while U.S. Park Police prevented vandals from toppling a statue of Andrew Jackson near the White House late Monday, a spokeswoman told The Epoch Times.
Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt condemned those involved, describing them as anarchists and criminals.
The Lincoln and World War II memorials were previously defaced, he said.
“Across the country, some elected leaders of our cities have expressed enthusiasm and support for these criminals, exhibiting an undeniable unwillingness to protect law abiding citizens and their property,” he said on Twitter.