A statue of Christopher Columbus has been erected on the White House grounds, in a move by President Donald Trump to honour the explorer as a foundational figure in US history. The 13-foot, one-tonne monument was placed outside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Pennsylvania Avenue.
The statue is a replica of a Columbus monument that was torn down and thrown into Baltimore's inner harbour by protesters during anti-racism demonstrations in 2020. The new statue was built in 2022 using shattered pieces retrieved from the harbour. Its pedestal bears the inscription: 'Destroyed July 4, 2020 … Resurrected 2022 ... Rededicated by President Donald J. Trump, October 13, 2025.'
The monument is owned by the Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations, which loaned it to the federal government. In a letter to the group's leader, Basil Russo, 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'. The White House posted on X that Columbus was a 'hero' and that Trump would ensure he was 'honoured as such for generations to come'.
Columbus has long been celebrated as the discoverer of America, though he never reached the continental United States. However, his legacy is controversial due to his involvement in the slave trade and the subjugation and killing of Indigenous peoples in the Caribbean during his voyages between 1492 and 1504. In recent years, some US jurisdictions have replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day.
Former President Joe Biden, in his 2021 Columbus Day proclamation, said Columbus 'ushered in a wave of devastation: violence perpetrated against native communities, displacement and theft of tribal homelands, the introduction and spread of disease, and more'. Despite this, Columbus remains a symbol of pride for some Italian-American groups, and the District of Columbia is named after him.
