WASHINGTON (TNND) — White House insiders say that President Donald Trump plans to build a Christopher Columbus statue on White House grounds.
Two of the three sources familiar with Trump’s plans told the Washington Post that the statue will likely be installed on the south side of the grounds; however, those plans are flexible.
The Christopher Columbus statue will be made of remnants of another Columbus statue which was destroyed and thrown into Baltimore’s harbor during the summer 2020 riots in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
It cost more than $100,000 to recover and restore the Christopher Columbus statue, according to Bill Martin, an Italian American businessman who played a major role in organizing the statue’s recovery. He told the Washington Post that the statue currently sits in a warehouse on Maryland’s Eastern Shore while it awaits being transferred to the Trump administration.
The White House did not comment on the alleged plans to construct a Christopher Columbus statue on White House grounds, instead opting to praise the Italian explorer.
“In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero,” spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement. “And he will continue to be honored as such by President Trump.”
Democrats and leftist have damned Columbus based upon allegations that his voyages to the Americas resulted in abuses of the indigenous people. In 2021, then President Joe Biden declared Columbus Day, which falls on the second Monday of October, as “Indigenous Peoples’ Day. However, Trump has championed Columbus as “the original American hero” in an October 2024 proclamation, recognizing Columbus Day and not Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
“We’re back, Italians. Okay? We love the Italians,” Trump said.
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The alleged plans to build a Christopher Columbus statue on White House grounds comes amid many other renovation plans for Trump, which include a $300 million ballroom and an arch near the Lincoln Memorial.