$10 Million Plan to Restore Confederate Monument at Arlington
The Pentagon is moving forward with a $10 million, two-year project to reinstall a Confederate monument at Arlington National Cemetery that was removed less than two years ago. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the decision Tuesday, saying the statue “never should have been taken down by woke lemmings” and arguing that honoring the monument preserves, rather than erases, American history.
A U.S. Army official said the statue will return with added panels to provide historical context. The base must be replaced and the monument refurbished before it is reinstalled.
A Century-Old Symbol of the “Lost Cause”
Erected in 1914 by sculptor and Confederate veteran Moses Ezekiel, the monument depicts a crowned female figure representing the American South, alongside idealized portrayals of enslaved people. Critics, including a 2022 congressional commission, labeled it “problematic from top to bottom” for promoting the “Lost Cause” narrative—a false framing of the Civil War as a fight over states’ rights rather than slavery.
Trump’s Push to Reinstate Confederate Symbols
The restoration aligns with President Donald Trump’s March executive order, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” which calls for returning removed statues and exhibits deemed victims of “partisan ideology.” Hegseth has also reverted renamed military bases, such as restoring the name “Fort Bragg” but honoring a different soldier, Pfc. Roland L. Bragg.
The order targeted institutions like the Smithsonian, accusing them of adopting “divisive, race-centered ideology,” and instructed the Interior Department to reinstate monuments altered or removed since 2020.
Albert Pike Statue Also Returning to D.C.
The National Park Service announced that the statue of Confederate Gen. Albert Pike—toppled and burned by protesters in 2020—will be restored to its original location in Washington’s Judiciary Square by October. Pike, a figure revered by Freemasons, has long been a source of controversy, with critics citing alleged ties to the Ku Klux Klan, a claim Masons dispute.
The Park Service says the restoration fulfills both historic preservation requirements and the administration’s executive orders.
