Donald Trump threatens Floyd protesters with 10-year imprisonment over destruction of U.S. monuments

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday reiterated his warning that those who destroy U.S. monuments on federal property would be arrested and face jail time, hours after protesters tried to topple a statue of former president Andrew Jackson near the White House.

Trump's warning on Twitter comes as a growing swath of such statues, many paying homage to the rebel Confederacy from the nation's Civil War-era, have been targeted amid weeks of protests over racism and policing.

Demonstrators gathered in Lafayette Park, Washington and threw ropes over the 168-year-old bronze statue of Jackson riding a horse in an attempt to topple it.

The crowds chanted, "Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Andrew Jackson has got to go," according to US media outlet NBC Washington.

Trump threatened the protesters with the 10-year imprisonment for violating the Veteran's Memorial Preservation Act - a law that prohibits the destruction of statues or memorials on federal land.

"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," Trump tweeted on Monday.

"10 years in prison under the Veteran's Memorial Preservation Act. Beware!"

Statues and monuments have been torn down and destroyed by the protesters across the country in recent weeks after demonstrations erupted due to racial injustice.

Andrew Jackson, who served as the seventh US president from 1828 to 1836, has ties to slave trading. He also implemented the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which resulted in the death of thousands of Native Americans, known as the Trail of Tears.