President Donald Trump is planning to install a statue of Christopher Columbus on the south side of the White House, sources told The Washington Post on Wednesday.
The statue will reportedly be a reconstruction of a statue unveiled by former President Ronald Reagan in Baltimore, Maryland, that had been dumped into the city’s harbor by Black Lives Matter rioters in 2020, according to the Post. Bill Martin, an Italian American businessman who helped recover and rebuild the original statue, said the sculpture is expected to be transferred from a Maryland warehouse to the White House in the coming weeks.
The White House said that Trump will continue to honor Columbus, emphasizing that the explorer is a hero.
“In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said. “And he will continue to be honored as such by President Trump.”
Trump has expressed staunch support for Columbus, in part by reinstating Columbus Day in honor of Italian Americans. In October, he signed a proclamation to commemorate Columbus’ life with “reverence and gratitude.”
“This Columbus Day, more than 500 years since Columbus arrived in the New World, we follow his example, we echo his resolve, and we offer our gratitude for his life of valor and grit. Above all, we commit to restoring a Nation that once again dares to tame the unknown, honors our rich cultural inheritance, and offers rightful praise to our Creator above,” the proclamation said.
Left-wing activists and academics have attempted to erase Columbus Day, a day that is widely cherished by Italian Americans, and replace the celebration with Indigenous Peoples’ Day. However, Columbus adopted a Native American adolescent as his son during his voyage in the Bahamas, who would become known as Diego Colon.
Columbus also urged his voyagers to exercise mercy toward the Natives, even after they burned an entire Spanish settlement and killed all of the Spaniards in the area. In his journals, Columbus described encountering cannibals among the Taino tribes on the Bahamas, and often expressed fear that the inhabitants “eat human flesh” and were very warlike.
Thirty states throughout the U.S. and three U.S. territories still recognize Columbus Day, according to Pew Research. A handful of blue states, such as Michigan, Vermont and Minnesota, no longer recognize Columbus Day at all.
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