In line with last month’s announcement, President Trump placed a statue of Christopher Columbus on the White House grounds on Sunday morning, March 22. This act underscores Trump’s commitment to restore Columbus Day and celebrate Columbus as a symbol of Italian American pride, despite his historical violence against Native populations.
The statue stands near the Eisenhower Executive Office building, atop a plinth declaring Columbus the “Discoverer of America.” It replicates the original statue from Baltimore’s Little Italy, unveiled by Ronald Reagan in 1984 and toppled by protestors in 2020 amid George Floyd demonstrations.
That statue was one of over 30 Columbus monuments dismantled between 2020 and 2021, recognizing Columbus’s brutal legacy. Historical accounts detail his exploitation, enslavement, and large-scale killings of Indigenous people, as well as the introduction of diseases that devastated Native communities.
After its removal, Baltimore’s Italian American leaders retrieved the statue from the harbor, and sculptor Tilghman Hemsley, along with his son Will, restored it. Funding from the IAOU and a $30,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities enabled the creation of two replicas. One was presented to the White House in 2025 by COPOMIAO and the IAOU for the upcoming America 250 celebrations.
Trump’s controversial tribute to Columbus is part of broader efforts to reshape American historical narratives, including executive orders promoting “American exceptionalism.” Last year, Trump closed Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion offices and ordered a review of Smithsonian narratives, urging less emphasis on slavery’s impact. The National Park Service has since revised historical presentations, including at the Stonewall Monument and Independence National Historical Park.
