Story highlights President Donald Trump lamented the loss of "beautiful statues"

His comments were related to removing Confederate monuments

The real estate developer drew backlash previously for destroying sculptures

(CNN) When Donald Trump was a young, brash businessman looking to put his stamp on the New York skyline, the "history and culture" imbued in a piece of artwork didn't stop him from quickly building his eponymous tower.

The year was 1979 and the 33-year-old Trump, hungry to build what would come to be known as Trump Tower, had bought the aging Bonwit building and planned to knock it down. Standing nine floors above the street below, though, were two large Bas-Relief Art Deco sculptures. In an ordeal that even Trump admitted caused him problems, the real estate developer would tear the sculptures down, horrifying art and culture experts in New York and landing him on the front page of The New York Times.

The story, which has been told by Trump and multiple biographers, stands in stark contrast to Trump's Twitter posts Thursday that decried attempts to remove Confederate monuments , statues and sculptures, arguing that removing the pieces of art could tear away the country's "history and culture." Trump however does express some regret in his book for how the incident played out.

"Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments," Trump wrote over two tweets. "You can't change history, but you can learn from it."

He added: "Also, the beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced!"

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