Annapolis, Maryland – President Donald Trump is taking steps toward installing a replica of a statue of famous explorer Christopher Columbus near the White House. Dumped into Baltimore Harbor During his first term amid protests against institutional racism.
John Pica, a Maryland lobbyist and president of United Italian American Organizations, said his group owns the statue and has agreed to loan it to the federal government to place in or near the White House.
Pica told The Associated Press in an interview that he was contacted about the statue on Columbus Day last year by an intermediary who said the White House was looking for a statue of the explorer. Pica says his organization held an informal vote and unanimously decided to send the statue to the White House. They signed the loan agreement on Wednesday.
Asked if he was optimistic that the statue would reach the White House, Pica said: “Yes, cautiously optimistic.” He added that the exact timing of any planned installation was unclear, but added, “probably within a couple of weeks.”
Maryland Republican Rep. Nino Mangione, who worked with the Italian American group to find the statue in a new location after it was towed from the port, also confirmed the plans for the statue, which were first reported by The Washington Post earlier Wednesday.
The White House declined to comment to the AP on plans for the statue, but reiterated Trump’s affinity for Columbus, whose legacy has changed as historians and educators exaggerate how white European figures and their descendants dealt with Native Americans and enslaved Africans to develop the New World.
Trump spokesman David Engel said: “In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero.” “He will continue to be honored in this way by President Trump.”
For Pica and his group, placing the statue in Washington will celebrate a famous Italian who has iconic status among Italian Americans. For Trump, this will be another step to reshaping the narrative of US history as the country marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Trump supports the traditional view of Columbus as the leader of the 1492 mission that marked the unofficial beginning of European colonization in the Americas and the development of the modern economic and political system. But in recent years, Columbus has also been recognized as a prime example of Western European conquest of the New World, its resources, and its indigenous people.
The statue now headed to Washington is a replica of a statue that was toppled by protesters on July 4, 2020, and thrown into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor after anger mounted over the death of George Floyd at the hands of police. This was one of several Columbus statues vandalized around the same time, with protesters saying the Italian explorer was responsible for the genocide and exploitation of indigenous peoples in the Americas.
“I was there when we took the statue out of the harbor,” Mangione said, adding that artist Will Hemsley used parts of the old statue, which was first unveiled during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, “to build and restore a brand new beautiful statue.”
In recent years, some individuals, organizations and government agencies have replaced Columbus Day with recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ Day. In 2021, President Joe Biden became the first US president to mark Indigenous Peoples’ Day with a proclamation.
Pica stressed that his group is loaning the statue and will get it back if a future administration wants to remove it.
Trump rejects Columbus’s shift in position as “left-wing arsonists” who are distorting history and distorting the collective memory of Americans. “I will bring Columbus Day back from the ashes,” he announced last April. Echoing his 2024 campaign rhetoric, he complained that “Democrats have done everything they can to destroy Christopher Columbus, his reputation, and all the Italians who love him so much.”
Trump issued a Columbus Day Proclamation Last October, it ignored Indigenous Peoples’ Day. He praised Columbus as “a Native American hero, a giant of Western civilization, and one of the most courageous and visionary men who ever walked the face of the earth.”
This honor reflects Trump’s broader view of history. Last spring, he He signed an executive order Titled “Restoring Truth and Reason to American History,” it lamented “the concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our nation’s history” in a way that skewers the United States as “inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or irredeemably flawed.”
Since the order was issued, the administration has requested A A comprehensive review of the exhibits Across all Smithsonian museums and prompted executive branch agencies and state and local agencies — especially colleges, universities, and schools — that receive federal funding to roll back their own diversity initiatives.
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Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report from Washington.