President Trump reiterated his defense of Confederate memorials this morning in a trio of tweets that argued for their aesthetic value: “Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments,” he shared. “You can’t change history, but you can learn from it. Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson — who’s next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish! Also, the beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced!”

Yes, if it’s one thing the President needs to highlight about these monuments that commemorate racist individuals as heroes, it’s their beauty. Of course, we should trust a man with such unparalleled taste as his. Just look at his former pad at Trump Tower. And let’s not forget that to build that tower faster he made a very smart decision to smash two stone sculptures on the former Bonwit Teller Building. Yes, the President knows culture and beauty when he sees it,  and he sure has some important concerns about “the alt-left” ruining the aesthetics of our public spaces.

The responses to this drivel came swiftly on Twitter, as they do, with people pointing out all the beautiful works of public art that have popped up this year alone, from guerrilla sculptures of a nude Trump to a bronze bust of Cristiano Ronaldo (yes, this was in Madeira, but still, worth a laugh). Other notable, older ones you can still visit include a particularly beautiful equestrian statue of the wonderful racist Nathan Bedford Forrest in Nashville and the famous roadside portrait of Jimmy Carter as a grinning peanut in Plains, Georgia. Very beautiful.

Others were quick to point out previous removals of statues to major Americans icons that were pretty great decisions — despite them being major cultural figures:

And then, of course, there are the more creative responses:

I’d like to end this very important post by chiming in to argue that the most beautiful figurative statues out there are of women (minus Fearless Girl, duh) as well as those commemorating our furry friends.

Claire Voon is a former staff writer for Hyperallergic. Originally from Singapore, she grew up near Washington, D.C. and is now based in Chicago. Her work has also appeared in New York Magazine, VICE,...