New York City announced on Sunday it would remove a statue of former US President Theodore Roosevelt, long criticised as a racist and colonialist symbol. But the move drew criticism from President Donald Trump.

The decision comes with the US gripped by widespread protests against racial inequality – sparked by the killing in police custody of George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man – with demonstrators toppling several statues of figures with racist legacies.

The bronze sculpture of Roosevelt, which has been at the entrance of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) for 80 years, depicts the former leader on horseback towering over a black man and a Native American man who are both on foot.

Citing the ongoing movement for racial justice, the museum said: “We also have watched as the attention of the world and the country has increasingly turned to statues and monuments as powerful and hurtful symbols of systemic racism.”

A Roosevelt family member released a statement approving the removal.

“The world does not need statues, relics of another age, that reflect neither the values of the person they intend to honour nor the values of equality and justice,” said Theodore Roosevelt IV, 77, a great-grandson.