Trump Installs Columbus Statue at White House, Restoring Monument Destroyed in 2020 Riots
President Donald Trump has installed a statue of Christopher Columbus on the White House grounds, according to officials.
The statue is located outside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and is visible from Pennsylvania Avenue and 17th Street NW.
It is a reconstruction of a monument first unveiled by President Ronald Reagan in Baltimore in 1984.
The original was torn down and dumped into the Baltimore harbor during the Black Lives Matter riots in 2020.
Trump has now installed the Christopher Columbus statue on the White House’s grounds.
He ended up putting it outside the EEOB building, per our photos snapped today. https://t.co/tBR9WvQaXu pic.twitter.com/1VaMVsUTdm
— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) March 22, 2026
A plaque at the base of the rebuilt statue references both events. It states that the monument was “Destroyed July 4, 2020” and later restored.
The statue was gifted to the White House and formally rededicated by Trump.
“In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero,” a spokesperson said.
The installation is part of a broader effort by the administration to place additional statues on White House grounds and other federal land.
Several statues of early American figures have already been added to the Rose Garden.
White House installs Christopher Columbus statue made from remains of toppled sculpture pic.twitter.com/Dn94w5IhGy
— The American Girl (@TheAmericanGrl) March 22, 2026
The administration is also planning a larger sculpture project known as the “Garden of Heroes.”
The proposed site is expected to feature statues of dozens of historical figures.
Officials have also discussed reinstalling statues that were removed from public spaces in recent years.
One such statue is a bronze monument of Caesar Rodney, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, which had been taken down in Delaware.
During his first term in office, Trump issued an executive order addressing the removal of monuments.
“These statues are not ours alone, to be discarded at the whim of those inflamed by fashionable political passions; they belong to generations that have come before us and to generations yet unborn,” the order stated.
“My Administration will not abide an assault on our collective national memory.”
The order described such actions as an “assault on our collective national memory” and created a federal task force on the issue.
Columbus is known for his 1492 voyage across the Atlantic, which established contact between Europe and the Americas.
Most states continue to observe Columbus Day, although some blue states have adopted “alternative” holidays.
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