Arlington, Virginia - President Donald Trump's administration recently had language removed from a statue at Arlington National Cemetery because it was critical of the confederacy.
According to The Washington Post, the administration recently replaced a sign at the site of the Confederate Memorial – a statue that was removed from the cemetery in 2023, leaving only the base behind.
The previous marker described the statue as a "nostalgic, mythologized vision of the Confederacy, including highly sanitized depictions of slavery," but the new sign has notably omitted anything deemed negative in reference to slavery or the confederacy.
In its place, the administration put up a sign that states, "The Army expects to display the sculpture at this site in 2027 after it has undergone comprehensive conservation and refurbishment."
The statue was removed under Trump's predecessor, former President Joe Biden, after receiving public backlash for some of its depictions. Some such images included a female slave carrying the infant of a white officer and a male slave following his master into battle.
Trump's administration has also made sweeping changes to a government website that provided context about the history of the statue. Specifically, they removed references to the slaves depicted in the piece, a description of a Latin phrase inscribed on it, and a section that detailed how the portrayal of the "faithful slave" helped to shape American pop culture.
Since his return to office, Trump and his allies have sought to restore monuments and statues honoring the confederacy, and make sweeping changes to how these subjects are taught in schools.