US President Donald Trump has faced protests by indigenous people while attending a celebration of Independence Day in South Dakota, and vowed to protect statues of the United States, in the midst of anti-racist confrontations, denouncing what he called the "fascism" of the American left.
The ceremony was attended by about 7,500 people on Mount Rushmore, which is a sacred site for the Indians, who inhabit the area, and fireworks were launched.
The indigenous people criticized Trump's visit because of the risk of corona virus outbreaks in the region, which had low rates of infection, and because it celebrated American independence in a region considered sacred for them.
The police arrested the indigenous protesters who blocked a road in the state in protest against the visit of the US President, who faces charges regarding his administration's treatment of minorities in the country.
The protesters said that Trump's visit increases the risk of spreading the Corona virus due to the celebration of the National Day.
The controversy surrounded the celebrations that took place near a mountain monument that carved the features of the faces of 4 American presidents: George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who owned slaves, in addition to a model of the faces of Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, who prevented human slavery in his country.
Left Charges and
Commenting on targeting statues of American figures accused of either slavery or racism, the US President said that the United States is witnessing a campaign to discredit its heroes and erase their values.
He added that what he called "angry gangs" seeking to destroy the statues of the founding fathers, pledging to send federal forces to protect these statues, and arrest those who riot and bring them to justice, and announced that he would sign an executive order to establish a national park to erect statues in honor of what he described as the greats of the United States.
Trump condemned the wave of demonstrations that swept the United States after the killing of George Floyd, an African American, asphyxiated by the police, saying that the demonstrators against racial and racial discrimination in American society threaten the foundations of the country's political system.
The US President spoke of the "leftist revolution of culture", which aims to topple the American revolution, and condemned what he considered "a new fascism" belonging to the extreme left.
Trump's attendance at the Independence Day celebration in South Dakota coincided with 7 U.S. states recording new record infections with the Corona virus, and the virus reaching a circle close to the president, after Kimberly Gilfoyle, the senior campaign official and friend of his son, was confirmed to be infected.
The event attracted about 7,500 people who crowded into a runway, and many did not adhere to the use of gags, in violation of public health officials ’instructions, who urged Americans to avoid large gatherings to slow the spread of the Corona virus.