WASHINGTON — President Trump made a spicy social media post celebrating Columbus Day, lashing out at Democrats for tearing down statues of Italian-born explorer Christopher Columbus.
“HAPPY COLUMBUS DAY TO ALL, in particular our great Italian American Community which was forced to suffer as the Radical Left Dumocrats, Socialists, and Communists rampaged through our cities and towns ripping down almost all of the beautiful statues of Christopher Columbus,” Trump posted on Truth Social Sunday — one day before Columbus Day.
“Well, those days of plunder are over, and the statues are back, more magnificent than ever,” he went on. “This is a big day for our great Italian American Community, and the Country of Italy itself, maybe the biggest. Congratulations!”
Trump signed a proclamation last year ordering Oct. 13 be observed as a day honoring the explorer.
States and cities across the country have pushed to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day, with critics portraying him as a colonizer as opposed to his traditional depiction as the European who “discovered” America.
They’ve pointed to the violence against indigenous people in the Americas after his arrival in 1492.
Critics have also noted that Leif Erikson led a Norse expedition to modern-day Canada centuries before Columbus.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration moved to repair the Christopher Columbus Memorial Fountain in DC’s Union Station, not far from the US Capitol, which had been broken since 2007.
It was reopened in May after 19 years of being left in disrepair.
Columbus Day has been a national holiday since 1937, though it was moved to the second Monday in October 1971.
Former President Joe Biden issued a first-ever presidential proclamation declaring Indigenous Peoples’ Day during his very first year in office. Biden re-upped that throughout his presidency.
Last week, Trump credited himself with reviving celebrations of Columbus Day.
“I resurrected Christopher Columbus,” he said during a ceremony to add a statue of Columbus to the Rose Garden last week.
“He’s been rehabbed 100 percent, and he’s been resurrected in the true sense,” he went on. “He’s back to where he should be.”
