Donald Trump Plans to Install Statue of Colonizer Who Terrorized Native Americans at the White House; called it a "Hero"

Donald Trump recently released a public rendering of the White House ballroom and plans to install a reconstructed Christopher Columbus statue.

In summer 2020, Italian American businessmen recovered and rebuilt the statue after it was dumped into Baltimore's harbor, according to three sources.

The latest estimate is $400 million for the expansion, which includes a 22,000-square-foot ballroom seating 1,000 people, fully funded by private donations; the White House executive mansion is 55,000 square feet. White House spokesman Davis Ingle said `In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero` and declined to comment further, supporting Trump's continued honoring of him.

The statue's 2020 removal by Black Lives Matter protesters and its dumping into Baltimore's harbor highlight its contentious status, while private restoration donors spent more than $100,000 honoring Italian immigrants.

Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) was an Italian explorer who, backed by Spain, initiated lasting European contact with the Americas, sparking global colonization. While traditionally celebrated for "discovering" the New World, he actually encountered inhabited lands, bringing immense violence, enslavement, and disease to Indigenous populations.

Here is the truth about Christopher Columbus, separating myth from historical record:

• He Did Not Discover America: Millions of people already lived in the Americas, including the Taino people in the Caribbean. Furthermore, Norse explorer Leif Erikson reached North America centuries earlier.
• He Was a Brutal Colonizer: As governor of Hispaniola, Columbus enacted severe, violent policies. He enslaved the Taino people, ordered brutal crackdowns, and, according to historical reports, mutilated or executed natives who resisted.
• He Initiated the Transatlantic Slave Trade: On his first day in the New World, he seized Indigenous people to serve him. He later sent thousands of Taino to Spain to be sold as slaves.
• He Was Arrested by Spain: Due to his horrific mismanagement and brutality, not just towards natives but also Spanish colonists, Columbus was arrested in 1500 and returned to Spain in chains.
• He Never Realized He Found a "New World": Columbus died believing he had found a new, quicker route to Asia (the East Indies). This misunderstanding led him to label the native inhabitants "Indians".
• He Did Not Prove the World Was Round: By 1492, educated Europeans already knew the world was spherical, a fact known since ancient Greek times.
• His Legacy is Controversial: Due to the devastation of Indigenous cultures, many places have replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples' Day to honor the people impacted by his terrorist and destructive arrival. 

Notably, Christopher Columbus was not the first European to reach the Americas, nor was he the "hero" often depicted in early literature; he was a navigator whose voyages catalyzed profound, often destructive, changes.

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