Joe Biden revokes Donald Trump’s order punishing statue vandals

Donald Trump’s executive order protecting US monuments, memorials and statues has been cancelled by his successor Joe Biden, who also called off the former president’s planned national garden of American heroes.

In his own executive order, President Biden revoked Mr Trump’s decree in June 2020 calling for the federal government to “prosecute to the fullest extent permitted under Federal law” acts of vandalism and destruction to statues on federal property.

That order came in response to the defacement of statues — particularly those honouring the Confederacy — during nationwide protests over racial injustice following the killing of George Floyd while in police custody. These demonstrations later spread around the world.

But no site was selected and the garden was never funded by Congress.

Mr Biden’s decree also revoked Mr Trump’s May 2020 order calling for the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate social media companies for labeling or removing posts or entire accounts in what the then president claimed was a restriction on free speech.

That order came before Mr Trump himself was removed from platforms like Twitter and Facebook after the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

“My administration is committed to expanding access to quality, affordable healthcare,” Mr Biden said in revoking that proclamation.

“We can achieve that objective, however, without barring the entry of non-citizens who seek to immigrate lawfully to this country but who lack significant financial means or have not purchased health insurance coverage from a restrictive list of qualifying plans.”