The White House has unveiled a statue of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus on its grounds, marking the latest effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to reshape depictions of U.S. history and culture. The statue now stands on the north side of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus.
Trump described Columbus as “the original American hero and one of the most gallant and visionary men to ever walk the face of the Earth” in a letter to the Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations, thanking the group for gifting the statue to the government. The installation is a reconstruction of a statue originally unveiled by former President Ronald Reagan in Baltimore in 1984, which was toppled into the city’s harbor during racial justice protests in 2020.
The move comes amid a broader campaign by the Trump administration against what he calls “anti-American” ideology, including the restoration of Confederate statues and the removal of slavery exhibits—actions critics say risk reversing decades of social progress. The campaign follows nationwide protests after the killing of George Floyd, when demonstrators challenged heroic portrayals of Columbus for overlooking his cruelty toward Indigenous peoples.
Similar restorations have included a statue of Caesar Rodney, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and enslaver, which will be displayed in Washington after its removal during the 2020 racial justice protests in Delaware, and the reinstallation last year of a statue of Confederate General Albert Pike, also removed during the protests.
Melissa Enoch
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