Trump celebrates installation of slave owner statue near White House and says Netanyahu meeting could be next week

President Donald Trump has celebrated the installation of a statue of Caesar Rodney, a Founding Father and slave owner, near the White House, encouraging Americans to go and see it. The imposing bronze figure, highlighted by the president ahead of America’s 250th birthday, has been a source of controversy after it was taken down at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.

Rodney, a Delaware delegate to the Continental Congress, played a crucial role in the fight for independence from Great Britain. On July 1, 1776, he received word that his state’s delegation was deadlocked on whether or not to break free — and that his vote could tip the balance. “Although he suffered from asthma and facial cancer, Rodney immediately set forth on a 80-mile overnight journey by horseback from Dover, Delaware, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday evening. “Enduring a raging thunderstorm, he arrived 250 years ago this very day, July 2, 1776, to cast his decisive vote, and secure America’s glorious destiny of Freedom and Independence.” The president added: “An equestrian statue honoring Rodney’s key contribution now anchors ‘Spirit of 76’ at Freedom Plaza, a new Exhibition in Washington, D.C., honoring the heroes and martyrs of the American Revolution. Go and see!”

“Trump celebrates installation of slave owner statue near White House; says Netanyahu meeting possible next week.”

The statue itself dates back more than a century. First erected in downtown Wilmington in 1923, it stood for decades as a tribute to Rodney’s midnight ride. In February 2008, then-Democratic candidate for president Barack Obama hosted a rally in front of the Founding Father’s likeness. But in 2020, in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing and as calls for racial justice intensified, city officials ordered it to be taken down. Mike Purzycki, then mayor of Wilmington, announced in June 2020 that the statue was “removed and stored so there can be an overdue discussion about the public display of historical figures and events.”

The controversy stems from Rodney’s history as a slave owner — he once owned as many as 200 people after inheriting his father’s plantation, according to The New York Times. There is evidence that he harbored objections to slavery, having once introduced legislation to prohibit the importation of slaves into Delaware. Multiple prominent Founding Fathers and past presidents — including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson — owned slaves.

In a separate development, Trump said a White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could happen next week, according to The Independent.