United States President Donald Trump railed on Friday against "angry mobs" that tried to tear down statues of Confederate leaders and other historical figures, warning thousands of supporters at Mount Rushmore that protesters were trying to erase the country's history.

The president announced that he would create a "National Garden of American Heroes", which he described as a large outdoor park featuring statues of "the greatest Americans who ever lived".

In the nationwide unrest following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis, protesters in several cities have vandalised the statues of Confederate generals that led a rebellion against the US government during the 1861-65 Civil War.

"Angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our founders, deface our most sacred memorials, and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities," Trump said.

But the American people are strong and proud, and they will not allow our country, and all of its values, history, and culture to be taken from them.".

Trump has opposed proposals to rename US military bases that are named after Confederate generals and promised harsh punishment for people who damage statues.

Al Jazeera's Rosiland Jordan, reporting from the city of Alexandria in Virginia, described Trump's speech at Mount Rushmore as a "political call to arms". .

And the other is that these statues in large part celebrated people who fought for the confederacy, which sought to enshrine slavery as a political and economic reality in the southern half of the US.

James Warren, the executive editor of News Guard, told Al Jazeera that Trump had showed a total disregard for the health crisis facing the country.

South Dakota, a solidly Republican state, has not been hit as hard as other states by COVID-19, but cases in Pennington County, where Mount Rushmore is located, have more than doubled over the past month.