Citing the Veteran’s Memorial Preservation Act and similar laws that may be applicable, Donald Trump warned via Twitter against vandalizing federal property including statues and monuments. The president said offenders will be arrested and face up ten years in jail.

Trump's announcement comes after he railed against demonstrators who tried to remove Andrew Jackson's statue that has been placed across the White House. In a separate tweet, Trump said several people were arrested in D.C. for vandalism in Lafayette Park, adding that these people will be facing ten years in prison under the Veteran’s Memorial Preservation Act.

While Trump claims in his tweet that he has authorized the Federal Government to arrest those violating the Veteran’s Memorial Preservation Act, the act, which was passed in 2003, doesn't require the president's authorization. The act states that a person who deliberately injures, destroys, or tries to injure or destroy any structure or any other public property that commemorates the service of a person in the armed forces of America will be fined under this title, face not more than ten years prison or both.

This single page act was passed with bipartisan support after incidents of vandalism in multiple veterans cemeteries. Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas has also urged the Justice Department to implement the act to bring charges against wrongdoers.

On June 22, Cotton wrote a letter to Attorney General William Barr saying it is time to put a stop on the mob as these vandals deserve to be prosecuted to the law's fullest extent. Before leaving for his Arizona campaign, Trump told reporters that he plans to sign an executive order that reinforces what's already there, but more systematically, without elaborating on what exactly that meant.

Describing offenders as hoodlums, vandals, anarchists, and agitators, Trump said he is planning to get long-term jail sentences for them. Trump said some people do not like how he describes these people, but that's what they are. These bad people, Trump said, do not love America and they will not be allowed to take down the country's monuments.

Chair of the Department of African and African American Studies at Brandeis University, Chad Williams deemed Trump's decision to pass an executive order questionable. Confused about how such an order can be enforced, Williams pointed out that the president wants to tamp down and crush any forms of protest and weaponize the different systems of the federal government, including National Guard, military, Secret Service and to serve as enforcers.