Donald Trump has installed a new statue of Christopher Columbus on the White House grounds, continuing his support of the historical figure. The move comes amid the ongoing debate over the legacy of the controversial Italian explorer.
Donald Trump installs new statue near White House
A 13-foot statue of Christopher Columbus has been installed outside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus. The statue is a replica of one that was thrown into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor as part of the 2020 nationwide protests against racism following the killing of George Floyd.
recently Letter to Basil RousseauDonald Trump, president of the Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations, said the statue “was placed on the White House campus along with a second statue called Freedom’s Charge, which is a life-size statue representing the revolutionary struggle to win America’s independence.”
In light of the statue’s recent installation, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle also provided an official statement, saying, “In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero, and President Trump will ensure he is honored as such for generations to come.”
The installation comes amid Trump’s continued efforts to restore statues of Columbus that were vandalized or removed by protesters, whom the president described as “anti-American rioters.” The Italian explorer has long been a controversial figure in world history.
Columbus, long seen as a pioneer in maritime navigation and the first European to make contact with the Americas, is now being criticized for his role in initiating the colonization of the continent and his treatment of native communities.
Trump has long been a staunch supporter of Columbus and holds a traditional view of the Italian sailor. Elsewhere in his letter to Rousseau, Trump wrote, “Christopher Columbus was a Native American hero and one of the most heroic and visionary men who ever walked the earth.”
Originally reported by Namrata Ghosh Mandatory