President Donald Trump went on Twitter Thursday to defend the nation's Confederate statues and monuments as several cities have announced plans to take them down.

Elaine Gross, of the education and policy advocacy group Erase Racism, says the tweets show that the president is ignorant and out of touch. 

His tweets come in the wake of his remarks that both sides – white supremacists and counterprotesters – were responsible in last weekend's deadly clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia. It has Long Islanders like Shakia Meachem believing that the president is taking the wrong side.

"He's definitely a racist. Because if he wasn't a racist he wouldn't defend it," she said. 

One of the president's tweets questioned where the line is drawn if some monuments come down, but not others. 

Neil Burstein, of North Massepequa, agreed, saying Thomas Jefferson and George Washington could be next since they were slave owners. 

Others like Drew Carrick, a Long Island-based historian and civil war re-enactor, says there should be a better way than just tearing down history. He suggested the monuments in question could be installed in museums.