I am aware that Christopher Columbus was not actually the first person to discover America, but tradition gives him the credit and the holiday. That credit and holiday is being restored under the Trump administration.

On Sunday, The New York Post reported:

A new statue of Christopher Columbus went up on the White House grounds Sunday that was built using pieces from a monument to the Italian explorer that protesters destroyed six years ago. 

The 13-foot, one-ton replica of a Columbus statue toppled in Baltimore in 2020 – then dumped into the city’s inner harbor – was commissioned by the Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations and is part of the White House’s celebration of America’s 250th anniversary. 

The 13-foot replica was placed Sunday outside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building after Baltimore officials refused to install it.

The article notes:

“Columbus statues have long stood as symbols of pride and cultural identity for more than 18 million Americans of Italian descent,” Basil M. Russo, the conference’s president, said in a statement. “For over a century, Columbus’s legacy helped Italian immigrants navigate prejudice and hardship, serving as a source of unity and belonging as they built new lives in this country. 

“Columbus Day itself emerged in the aftermath of the 1891 New Orleans lynching, when 11 Italian immigrants were killed by a mob of thousands, an event that prompted a national effort to promote the acceptance and assimilation of Italian Americans,” Russo continued. “This history remains central to why these monuments matter.”

This is the picture of the new statue:

A nation should never deny its own history.