The White House has erected a statue of Christopher Columbus on its grounds, according to CNN, with the installation occurring over the weekend as part of Trump's broader anti-woke agenda. According to sources, Trump has also renamed military bases that had shed their Confederate names and pushed to strip 'ideological' content, including slavery exhibits, from the Smithsonian. Last October, he signed a proclamation to mark Columbus Day exclusively. The statue is 13 feet (about 4 meters) high, according to multiple reports, and is a replica assembled in part from pieces of the original statue. The original statue was thrown into Baltimore Harbor by Black Lives Matter rioters on July 4, 2020. The date of the original statue's destruction is listed on the base of the new statue, though it is unclear what specific pieces were used in the replica or who physically installed it over the weekend.
The statue is located on the north side of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and is visible from Pennsylvania Avenue. President Donald Trump wrote to Basil Russo thanking him for gifting the statue to the government. Russo is the leader of the Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations and heads the Italian Sons and Daughters of America. In a statement, Trump said, 'I am truly honored that this magnificent statue will now sit on the grounds of the White House.' He also remarked, 'We're back, we're back, Italians,' though the White House has not provided an official stance on the installation or any planned ceremonies.
I am truly honored that this magnificent statue will now sit on the grounds of the White House.
While Columbus is credited with discovering the Americas, his legacy has become more complicated due to his history of enslaving people and bringing disease and conflict to Native Americans. Some states now celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day instead of Columbus Day every October, and Joe Biden became the first president to mark Indigenous Peoples' Day in 2021. The statue's fate is entangled with one of the defining crises of Trump's first term: the death of George Floyd, a black man killed by white Minneapolis police officers over Memorial Day weekend 2020. Floyd's death set off a wave of BLM protests around the world amid the pandemic. Trump, running for reelection at the time, was openly critical of the BLM protests, opting to push a law-and-order and 'Blue Lives Matter' message instead. Public or political reaction to the statue's erection beyond these sources remains unknown.
We're back, we're back, Italians.