The White House has placed a statue of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus on its grounds, part of President Donald Trump’s effort to honor the controversial historical figure.
The statue is a replica of the Columbus monument that was thrown into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor in 2020 during nationwide protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd and a wider reckoning over racism in US institutions. The new statue now sits on the north side of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, adjacent to the White House.
In a letter made public to the Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations, Trump called Columbus “the original American hero and one of the most gallant and visionary men to ever walk the face of the Earth,” and thanked the group for the gift. John Pica, president of the Italian American organizations’ body, said, “We are delighted the statue has found a place where it can peacefully shine and be protected.” The White House posted on X that “In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero, and President Trump will ensure he’s honored as such for generations to come.”
Columbus is a contentious figure because his Spanish-funded voyages in the 1490s opened the way for European conquest and colonization of the Americas. The 2020 Black Lives Matter protests prompted renewed scrutiny of colonial-era symbols tied to slavery and genocide; protesters in several cities targeted Columbus statues, citing his and his crews’ role in the exploitation and mass deaths of the Taino people in the Caribbean and setting patterns repeated against Indigenous peoples across the Americas.
In recent years, many US institutions and communities have shifted from celebrating Columbus Day on October 12 to observing Indigenous Peoples Day; President Joe Biden issued a proclamation marking the change in 2021. Trump has criticized that shift as “anti-American” and in April 2025 said, “I’m bringing Columbus Day back from the ashes,” accusing Democrats of trying to destroy Columbus’s reputation and Italian-American pride.
Columbus is not the only contested figure to be returned to public display. Last week the US Interior Department said a statue of Caesar Rodney, a Declaration of Independence signer who was also an enslaver and whose statue was removed during 2020 protests in Delaware, will be displayed in Washington. A statue of Confederate General Albert Pike, toppled during the 2020 protests, was reinstalled in Washington last year.
Edited by: Elizabeth Schumacher