President Donald Trump has vowed to bring back Columbus Day in October. The president posted on Truth Social on Sunday, April 27, to make the announcement.
Trump asserted that “Democrats did everything possible to destroy Christopher Columbus, his reputation and all of the Italians that love him so much.”
The president said he is reinstating the day under the same rules, dates and locations where people have marked it for many decades.
When is Columbus Day?
The federal holiday takes place on the second Monday in October. While it is still called Columbus Day, former President Joe Biden signed a proclamation in 2021, recognizing the holiday as Indigenous Peoples Day, celebrating “the invaluable contributions and resilience of Indigenous peoples and their inherent sovereignty.”
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Why did the previous administration make changes?
The same proclamation stated that the founding fathers formed America on the promise of equality and opportunity for all people. The proclamation specifically mentioned the “rights and dignity of the Indigenous people who were here long before the colonization of the Americas began.”
Activists had long sought to shift the honoring of Columbus’ voyage to the Americas to the exploitation and plight of indigenous people, whom Columbus and other explorers found when they arrived. Biden’s move was considered a move to acknowledge more diversity in the United States.
The history
When Columbus arrived on the Caribbean islands in 1492, many saw it as the discovery of America and the beginning of European colonization. However, as NPR documented in its report, “Coming to America: Who Was First,” there were millions of people already there.
The Associated Press reports that the killing of 11 Italian American immigrants in New Orleans in 1891 led to the first Columbus Day celebration in the United States. President Franklin D. Roosevelt later declared it a national holiday in 1934.
What did President Trump say about the holiday?
Trump has often criticized the tearing down of Columbus statues in recent years, reiterating his stance in his Truth Social post, saying, “They tore down his Statues, and put up nothing but WOKE, or even worse, nothing at all.”
