President Donald Trump honored Christopher Columbus on Oct. 9, touting the Italian explorer’s legacy and criticizing those who want to destroy his statues.
The White House celebration of Columbus comes ahead of Columbus Day, which is Oct. 12. It is a federal holiday in the United States and honors both Columbus and Italian Americans.
In his speech, Trump said Columbus “undertook one of the boldest voyages in the history of our planet” when he set sail in 1492 westward with the goal of reaching Asia but instead landed in the New World.
The president noted that Columbus’s crew begged him to turn back to Spain, but Columbus pressed on.
During his speech, which mainly covered topics not related to Columbus, such as combating crime in Washington and other cities, Trump also criticized those on the far left, saying they were trying to tarnish Columbus’s legacy by vandalizing or taking down statues of him. In October 2019, two Columbus statues in Rhode Island and California were covered in red paint and graffiti.
“I resurrected Christopher Columbus,” the president said. “They were taking a statue down, everything all over the place, and I put up a statue, beautiful statue of Christopher Columbus, right in front of the main office building, the Eisenhower Building, right across the street.”
The statue, installed in March, is a 13-foot replica of one that was tossed into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor by demonstrators in 2020.
Trump cited that the District of Columbia, home to the nation’s capital, is named after Columbus and that the 13 Colonies were called Columbia by early settlers.
Trump said that critics of Columbus want to abolish Columbus Day, which is also known as Indigenous People’s Day to mark the adverse effects that colonization had on Native Americans.
“They want to tear down the history and heritage that makes us who we are,” the president said.
Trump gave a shoutout to notable Italian Americans including Yankees icon Joe DiMaggio, legendary singer Frank Sinatra, former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, former New York City Mayors Fiorello La Guardia and Rudy Giuliani, and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
The event began with Christopher Macchio singing Italian opera song “Nessun dorma.” Macchio, a favorite of Trump, is of Italian heritage. Macchio also sang after Trump’s remarks.
The president’s strong support for the Italian explorer was exemplified in an executive order he signed in 2025, recognizing Oct. 13 as Columbus Day. This contrasts with his predecessor, President Joe Biden, who signed dual proclamations honoring Columbus Day and Indigenous People’s Day.
Biden’s 2021 Columbus Day proclamation recognized “the painful history of wrongs and atrocities that many European explorers inflicted on Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities.”
In Trump’s proclamation, he lauded Columbus as “the original American hero” and “a giant of Western civilization.”
“As we celebrate his legacy, we also acknowledge the contributions of the countless Italian Americans who, like him, have endlessly contributed to our culture and our way of life,” he stated in his proclamation.
Trump criticized “left-wing radicals” for seeking to “erase our history” and “attack our heritage” by toppling Columbus statues and defaming the explorer’s character.
“Under my leadership, those days are finally over—and our Nation will now abide by a simple truth: Christopher Columbus was a true American hero, and every citizen is eternally indebted to his relentless determination,” he said.
Aldgra Fredly contributed to this report.
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