Columbus Goes to the White House

A most wonderful article

admin October 10, 2026 3 minutes read

Ciao.

In light of the news emerging from the White House with the approach of Columbus Day, saying “hello” in Italian seems appropriate.

Here’s the headline from Newsmax:

Trump to Honor Columbus at White House Celebration

Newsmax reports:

President Donald Trump will host a White House celebration honoring Christopher Columbus on Friday, highlighting a reconstructed statue of the explorer as he urges Italian Americans to remember his support ahead of the midterm elections.

The statue, installed outside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in March, recreates a Baltimore monument that protesters toppled and threw into the city’s harbor on July 4, 2020, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

The celebration comes ahead of Columbus Day, which Trump has championed amid debate over the explorer’s legacy and efforts to recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day on the same date.

….The original statue, commissioned by Italian American Organizations United, was dedicated in 1984 with President Ronald Reagan participating. Protesters pulled it down during the unrest that followed George Floyd’s death in May 2020.

An unhappy hard fact of recent history is that one aspect or figure or another in American history enrages this or that group for whatever reason. And so they go out there and start defacing or pulling down statues honoring this or that celebrated hero of a particular moment in history.

Targets for destruction or removal over the years have included statues or memorials to this or that president of the United States (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ulysses Grant), composer of “The Star Spangled Banner” national anthem Francis Scott Key, various Confederate generals or leaders, explorer Kit Carson, American Indians, a Catholic priest, Connecticut Deputy Governor and Union Colonel Hans Christian Heg. And others.

Fortunately, in this latest go-round centering on Columbus, President Trump has made a point of highlighting — in fact celebrating — the famous Italian explorer.

All of which highlights a central fact of life. History is … history. History revolving around imperfect human beings, the history involved is itself memorializing imperfect human beings. Americans in this case.

But until the day arrives when perfect humans bestride the earth — which will be never — history, statues, and monuments celebrating less than perfect men and women will be the norm.

So — yet again — as Columbus Day arrives with celebrations of the less than perfect explorer, it is still very much worth the effort to celebrate Columbus and his achievements.