Baltimore defies Trump, removes Confederate statues overnight

In his meltdown press conference, Trump grotesquely compared the Founding Fathers to the leaders of the racist  Confederate Army’s open rebellion against the United States.

“You’re changing history, you’re changing culture,” he complained.

As Trump’s words echoed around the world and provoked widespread condemnation, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh quickly used the authority she had been given by the city council to take down the eyesores.

Statues of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson were removed, along with the “Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument,” and a statue honoring Roger B. Taney, who wrote the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision that ruled that blacks were not citizens of the United States.

Removal of the statues, hours after Trump’s self-immolation, show the erosion of whatever influence and ability he had to lead. Americans continue to rise in defiance of Trump and his use of the White House bully pulpit to promote and enable white supremacy.

Trump is so unpopular, and his decision to side with white supremacists is such a stark departure from American tradition, that his comments may accelerate the movement to remove pro-slavery monuments across America. CBS News reports that “many other local and state governments announced that they would remove statues and other imagery from public land, or consider doing so” after the attack in Charlottesville, Virginia.

As an unintended consequence of Trump’s unpopularity, these totems to the worst expression of racism in American history are coming down even faster. He’s finally achieving something.