Trump signs order to begin removing Confederate flags from government buildings

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday directing the federal government to immediately remove the flags from the public and private property around the U.S. Capitol.

The order was signed by Trump in a ceremony that lasted more than four hours, the White House said.

It was signed in response to the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., which was sparked by the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Trump has condemned racism and white supremacists in the past.

Trump, in a tweet Monday, said the flag “has become an easy target for racists, and we will not allow this flag to remain on the nation’s capital, even if it means taking down our monuments and removing our statues of Jefferson Davis, Martin Luther King, and Rosa Parks.”

A separate order signed Monday instructs the Federal Aviation Administration to “establish and enforce a uniform policy to remove flags, flagspoles, and other displays of American history from aircraft and other land transportation.”