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Twitter later slapped a warning label on Trump's tweet, reading: \"This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about abusive behavior. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible,\" hiding the president's text unless a user clicks \"view.\"

\"PHOTO:
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
PHOTO: President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, June 23, 2020 to travel to Arizona.
>

As he departed for Arizona Tuesday, Trump thanked police for stopping protesters Monday night -- whom he called \"vandals, hoodlums, anarchists and agitators\" -- from succeeding.

\"Last night we stopped an attack on a great monument of Andrew Jackson and Lafayette Park,\" Trump told reporters, adding that \"numerous people\" are already in jail and more are going \"today.\"

In addition to the attempts to tear down the Jackson statue, protesters tried to build a \"Black House Autonomous Zone\" at the end of the nearby street now called \"Black Lives Matter Plaza\" -- both a short distance from the White House front door.

\"PHOTO:
Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images
PHOTO: Protesters confront police near a barricade they erected and marked with the sign "Black House Autonomous Zone" in front of Lafayette Park near the White House, June 22, 2020.
>

\"BHAZ\" was seen spray-painted on the columns of St. John's Episcopal Church, where protesters had set up tents, and on pieces of plywood protesters placed around the area.

In an attempt to thwart another effort Tuesday night, police have so far prevented protesters from getting close to the end of Black Lives Matter Plaza and Lafayette Park.

Police have been preventing protesters from getting close to Black Lives Matter Plaza and Lafayette Park, where the evening before they pushed back people trying to topple a statue of Andrew Jackson pic.twitter.com/bFk0N4GObb

— Ben Gittleson (@bgittleson) June 23, 2020

As he spoke on the South Lawn Tuesday morning, Trump doubled down on an earlier tweet threatening to prosecute protesters.

\"PHOTO:
Joshua Roberts/Reuters
PHOTO: Protesters attempt to pull down the statue of President Andrew Jackson in the middle of Lafayette Park in front of the White House during racial inequality protests, June 22, 2020.
>

\"We are looking at long term jail sentences for these vandals, hoodlums, anarchists and agitators. Some people don't like that language, but that's what they are: Bad people. They don't love our country, and they're not taking down our monuments,\" he said. \"I just want that to be clear.\"

Trump had tweeted he'd already \"authorized\" the federal government to \"arrest anyone who vandalizes or destroys any monument, statue or other such Federal property in the U.S.\"

I have authorized the Federal Government to arrest anyone who vandalizes or destroys any monument, statue or other such Federal property in the U.S. with up to 10 years in prison, per the Veteran's Memorial Preservation Act, or such other laws that may be pertinent.....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 23, 2020

He wrote the offense would be punishable with up to 10 years in prison.

They chanted \"Hey, hey, ho, ho, Andrew Jackson's got to go,\" as they threw ropes around the bronze statue of the seventh president, depicted atop a horse in Lafayette Square.

\"PHOTO:
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
PHOTO: A woman reacts to being hit with pepper spray as protesters clash with police after they attempted to pull down the statue of former U.S. President Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square near the White House in Washington, D.C., on June 22, 2020.
>

Police eventually intervened Monday and used chemical irritants to disperse the crowd.

Daylight Tuesday showed the base had been spray-painted with the word \"killer.\"

\"PHOTO:
Andrew Harnik/AP
PHOTO: The White House is visible behind a statue of President Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Park, June 23, 2020, in Washington, with the word "Killer" spray painted on its base.
>

Trump has said Jackson, who led the systematic removal of native Americans two centuries ago, is a personal hero.

\"PHOTO:
Michael Reynolds/Pool via Getty Images
PHOTO: President Donald Trump, beneath a portrait of populist President Andrew Jackson, speaks before the swearing-in of Rex Tillerson as secretary of state in the Oval Office of the White House, Feb. 1, 2017.
>

He's placed a small replica of the Jackson statue that sits in Lafayette Park behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.

\"PHOTO:
Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
PHOTO: President Donald Trump stands in the Oval Office, Sept. 5, 2019, next to the HMS Resolute desk with a replica of the equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson by Clark Mills, behind his chair.
>

He had a portrait of Jackson hung next to the desk.

And early in his administration he placed a wreath at Jackson's tomb in Nashville.

\"PHOTO:
Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images, FILE
PHOTO: President Donald Trump lays a wreath at the tomb of former president Andrew Jackson after he took a tour of Andrew Jackson's Hermitage in Nashville, Tenn., March 15, 2017.
>

Though the president said \"numerous\" arrests were made, two arrests were made by U.S. Park Police, according to a Department on Interior spokesperson. One officer sustained an upper-body injury after being struck by an unknown weapon. He was transported to a local hospital and later released.

Trump has repeatedly criticized Seattle leadership for its the autonomous zone -- saying he could clear out protesters there in minutes.

It wasn't immediately clear what Trump or law enforcement might do to stop a repeat of Monday night, but during the day Tuesday protest signs had been removed and police appeared to have set up had set up a larger perimeter.

\"PHOTO:
ABC News
PHOTO: White House and Lafayette Park area
>

Law enforcement on June 1 used chemical irritants and smoke canisters to clear peaceful protesters from Lafayette Park, just north of the White House, immediately before the president briefly walked to the church to pose with a Bible in front of it and took photographs with his aides.

\"PHOTO:
Jose Luis Magana/AFP via Getty Images
PHOTO: Police officers wearing riot gear push back demonstrators in front of St. John's Episcopal Church outside of the White House, June 1, 2020, in Washington D.C., during a protest over the death of George Floyd.
>

Trump's rhetoric against protesters has ramped up alongside his defense for statues of historical figures with ties to racism or slavery, as protesters across the country have torn down monuments in recent weeks.

He added Tuesday that if states can't handle protesters, the federal government will, and to expect an executive order to discipline those tearing down statues \"shortly.\"

\"I will have an executive order very shortly. And all it's really going to do is reinforce what's already there, but in a more uniform way,\" Trump said. \"If the state governments, as you see them, all over, Seattle. They're very weak. And in Minnesota, they might need help. If they need help, the federal government is willing to help them.\"

\"PHOTO:
Amy Katz/ZUMA Wire via Newscom
PHOTO: Tents are shown at Lafayette Square, June 20, 2020, in front of the White House.
>

\"If these hoodlums come around, and if the states can't handle it, we are ready, willing and able to help as we did in Minnesota,\" he said, referring to when the National Guard was sent in after George Floyd's death.

Trump earlier cited the Veterans Memorial Preservation or \"such other laws that may be pertinent\" to enforce the arrests.

Numerous people arrested in D.C. for the disgraceful vandalism, in Lafayette Park, of the magnificent Statue of Andrew Jackson, in addition to the exterior defacing of St. John's Church across the street. 10 years in prison under the Veteran's Memorial Preservation Act. Beware!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 23, 2020

It was passed in 2003, in the wake of instances of vandalism at military cemeteries, especially a rash of vandalism at military cemeteries in Hawaii.

One section of the act states that a person who willfully injures or destroys memorials \"commemorating the service of any person or persons in the armed forces of the United States\" -- or attempts to do so -- shall be fined and/or imprisoned no more than 10 years.

But Congress authorizes prosecutions for crimes under federal law, not the president.

It's not the first time Trump has expressed disdain at Seattle's autonomous zone in its Capitol Hill neighborhood -- dubbed the \"CHAZ\" -- a version of which he can now find outside his front door.

\"PHOTO:
Tom Brenner/Reuters
PHOTO: A person looks out of their tent as Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police officers approach to clear the Black Lives Matter Plaza area in front of St. John's Episcopal Church during protests near the White House in Washington, June 23, 2020.
>

At his Saturday rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he said it would take him \"less than an hour\" to clear the zone if Democratic Gov. Jay Inlsee of Washington state called him. Trump said he would \"love to do it.\"

\"Now these are anarchists, these are not protestors,\" Trump said, speaking of Seattle. \"Could you imagine if people just even slightly to the right tried to take over Seattle? They'd have machine guns out to get them, but these people can take over the city, look at what they've done to businesspeople that have spent years and years building their business, and now they're wiped out. Take it away. Governor Inslee ought to get his act together, get in there.\"

\"PHOTO:
Carlos Barria/Reuters
PHOTO: President Donald Trump boards Air Force One as he departs on a day trip to Arizona and a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border, leaving Washington from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, June 23, 2020.
>

He also defended statues of Confederate and other leaders tied to racism in his remarks, as statue across the country of such figures come down.

\"The unhinged left wing mob is trying to vandalize our history, desecrate our monuments, our beautiful monuments,\" Trump said Saturday. \"They want to demolish our heritage so they can impose their new oppressive regime in its place.\"

\"PHOTO:
Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images
PHOTO: US President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the BOK Center on June 20, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
>

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, a conservative Republican, agreed with President Trump that charges should be brought against protesters under the act, as he did nearly a month ago agreeing with the president when he threatened to invoke Insurrection Act.

Speaking on the Senate floor Monday night as the events unfolded, Cotton called on the Justice Department to bring charges against \"mob vigilantes\" taking down statues: \"We cannot tolerate mob rule and we cannot allow it to go unpunished.\"

ABC News' Katherine Faulders, Luke Barr, Ben Gittleson, Ella Torres and Morgan Winsor contributed to this story.

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