OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
12:36 PM – Tuesday, March 24, 2026
In a move blending cultural restoration with a sharp critique of historical erasure, the Trump administration has installed a 13-foot statue of Christopher Columbus on the White House grounds.
The monument is a replica of a sculpture that was famously toppled and tossed into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor by left-wing protesters during the 2020 Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests and riots.
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The installation marks a significant milestone in President Donald Trump’s “America250” initiative, a campaign aimed at restoring American pride and a number of monuments removed during periods of civil unrest — countering “anti-American” historical revisionism.
The original marble statue was first dedicated in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan in Baltimore’s Little Italy. After it was destroyed on July 4, 2020, members of the Italian American Organizations United, in collaboration with sculptor Tilghman Hemsley IV, coordinated a recovery effort to retrieve the shattered remains from the harbor floor.
While the project was a family collaboration at their Maryland studio, the primary sculptor of the new 13-foot replica is Will Hemsley (William Tilghman Hemsley V). His father, Tilghman Hemsley IV, led the initial 2020 recovery and assembly of the diving team. Will then took the lead on the technical reconstruction, utilizing 3D scans of the salvaged fragments to create the mold for the new work. By using a marble-and-resin “cold cast” process, he successfully integrated the original physical material into the new sculpture, effectively “resurrecting” the destroyed monument.
The piece’s details:
- Height: 13 feet
- Weight: Approximately one ton
- Location: The north side of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building, situated on 17th Street NW, steps from the West Wing.
In a letter to the Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations (COPOMIAO), President Trump praised Columbus as “the original American hero” and “one of the most gallant and visionary men to ever walk the face of the Earth.”
“In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero, and President Trump will ensure he’s honored as such for generations to come,” said Davis Ingle, a White House spokesperson.
However, the move has since reignited debate as well. Many left-wing critics and Indigenous rights activists claim that Columbus’ “documented history of enslavement and brutality,” in their own words, is problematic and thus doesn’t deserve to be celebrated.
One lefty critic, Ivone Sagastume, who described herself as a first-generation Guatemalan American visiting the capital, asserted to reporters that the statue felt like “another way the administration is dividing the country.”
“We as a nation have fought for unity and for respect of other cultures,” Sagastume, 35, said. “That symbol is just going to destroy that even more, it’s just destroying what this country was built on.”
Nonetheless, the installation has also drawn support from many online.
“Christopher Columbus is a hero to Italian-Americans. Columbus Day is a symbol to us that we were finally fully accepted into American civil society. If you want ‘Indigenous People’s Day,’ pick a different day on the calendar! Columbus Day is taken!” said one user on X.
The installation of the Columbus statue is part of a broader effort to revitalize the capital’s aesthetic appeal as the nation approaches its semiquincentennial. Currently on loan from the Italian American Organizations United, the monument is expected to remain in its prominent position through at least the end of the current presidential term.
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