Donald Trump warned National Rifle Association members Friday that Democrats would change the name of Pennsylvania if they win in November.
The former president, during an hour-plus-long speech in Harrisburg, reflected on his election win in the state back in 2016 before declaring that his campaign has to be victorious this year.
“Or we’re not gonna have Pennsylvania, they’ll change the name, they’re gonna change the name of Pennsylvania,” Trump said.
Trump went on to note efforts to reexamine naming things after historical figures, claiming that George Washington’s name has been stripped from high schools.
“That’s one even I thought was safe. Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, their names are now in danger,” he said.
It’s unclear what Trump was referring to but his Pennsylvania claim comes roughly one month after Fox News reported on the National Park Service’s proposal to remove a statue of William Penn, who the state is named after, from a park in Philadelphia.
The statue, local news site Billy Penn noted, is a small version of one atop City Hall that is arguably “the highest profile statue” in Philadelphia that “limited the height of development throughout the city.”
NPS later reversed the decision following criticism including from Pennsylvania state Representative Bryan Cutler, who claimed that President Joe Biden and his administration were trying to “cancel” Penn.
Pennsylvania Goveernor Josh Shapiro wrote that he had been in contact with the administration “to correct this decision” over the statue.
“I’m pleased Welcome Park will remain the rightful home of this William Penn statue — right here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Penn founded,” he wrote on X.
Critics mocked the former president over the Pennsylvania name claim including conservative attorney and Trump critic George Conway, who jokingly wrote that the remarks were “perfectly normal.”