Historical Monuments and Memory Politics

On March 22, 2026, in the early morning hours the Trump administration installed a replica of the Christopher Columbus statue toppled in Baltimore on the north side of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House; the mostly‑marble work was rebuilt by Maryland sculptor Will Hemsley using salvaged pieces recovered from Baltimore’s Inner Harbor and was spearheaded by Italian American groups, including COPOMIAO and Italian American Organizations United, which says it has loaned the statue to the White House until the end of Trump’s term. The White House framed the placement as honoring Columbus — tying it to the nation’s 250th anniversary and to a broader pushback against replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day and 2020 protest‑era statue removals.