President Donald Trump has long been a staunch supporter of Columbus Day, and it appears that position will hold firm during his second term in the nation’s highest office. In his latest post on Truth Social, the 47th President of the United States announced his intention to, as he might put it, “Make Columbus Day Great Again.”
“I’m bringing Columbus Day back from the ashes,” said Trump in a spontaneous post on Sunday. The president continued his statement by blaming the Democratic Party for knocking Christopher Columbus off his pedestal, criticizing them for doing “everything possible to destroy Christopher Columbus, his reputation, and all of the Italians that love him so much.” This is not only a dig at the politicians who rallied to have Columbus statues removed from their local communities, but also his predecessor, Joe Biden, who chose to issue official proclamations commemorating Indigenous Peoples’ Day alongside Columbus Day during his four years as POTUS.
Although Biden was the first president in American history to officially proclaim the second Monday of October as Indigenous Peoples’ Day, President Trump has made it clear that this new tradition from the previous administration would be shortlived, rounding out his commentary by noting his intention to reinstate Columbus Day “under the same rules, dates, and locations, as it has had for all of the many decades before!”
Several Italian American organizations have already posted on social media in support of the president’s words, including the Italian Sons and Daughters of America, the Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America, and the Italian American Civil Rights League. According to the IACRL, they were the first major Italian American organization to endorse Trump in the 2024 election, and when the president was informed of the endorsement, he told the group that he would save Columbus Day.
Looking to follow through on his word, Trump promised that the famed Italian navigator “is going to make a major comeback.”
