Trump had a statue of Christopher Columbus erected in the White House

It is the latest attempt to reshape the portrayal of U.S. history and culture. The fight against an ideology Trump has described as “anti-American” has already included the removal of slavery exhibits and the restoration of Confederate statues.

Trump: “First American Hero”

These measures could reverse decades of social progress, according to civil rights activists. During the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 following the death of George Floyd, several U.S. cities removed statues of the Italian sailor, whose Spanish-funded voyages beginning in the 1490s paved the way for Europe’s conquest of the Americas. Floyd’s death led to a global reassessment of the colonial era and the legacy of slavery.

Trump called Columbus “the first American hero and one of the bravest and most visionary men who ever walked the earth” in a letter published Sunday. Activists, however, criticized the heroic portrayal of Columbus, arguing that it trivialized or ignored his cruelty toward the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

The statue in the White House is a reconstruction of the one unveiled by the late President Ronald Reagan in Baltimore in 1984. This statue was thrown into the city’s harbor in 2020 by protesters whom Trump described in his letter as “anti-American rioters.”

Statue of a slave owner

Last week, the Interior Department announced that a statue of Caesar Rodney, a slave owner and signer of the Declaration of Independence, would be placed in Washington after it was removed in 2020 amid anti-racism protests in Delaware. A statue of Confederate General Albert Pike that was toppled during protests was re-erected in Washington last year.