A statue of Christopher Columbus has been installed in the grounds of the White House in the latest attempt by Donald Trump to position the controversial explorer as a foundational hero of the US.

The president had the 13ft statue, which weighs one ton, placed outside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, on Pennsylvania Avenue. It is a replica of a monument to Columbus that was torn down and tossed into Baltimore’s inner harbor by protesters in the city amid widespread anti-racism protests in 2020.

The new statue was built in 2022 with shattered pieces of the original monument that were retrieved from the harbor. The pedestal of the statue is inscribed: “Destroyed July 4, 2020 … Resurrected 2022 … Rededicated by President Donald J. Trump, October 13, 2025.”

Trump wrote in a letter to Basil Russo, leader of the Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations, which owns the statue and loaned it to the federal government, that Columbus “was the original American hero and one of the most gallant and visionary men to ever walk the face of the Earth”.

The president added that he was “truly honored that this magnificent statue will now sit on the grounds of the White House”. The White House added on a post on X that Columbus was a “hero” and that Trump would ensure he was “honored as such for generations to come.”

Columbus has long been hailed as the discoverer of America, even though he never set foot on the continental United States, coming closest by arriving in what is now the Bahamas. But Columbus is also a controversial historical figure due to his role as a slave trader and the subjugation and killing of Indigenous people in the Caribbean, where he made several voyages between 1492 and 1504.

Honors bestowed upon him have come under scrutiny in recent years, with some jurisdictions in the US replacing Columbus Day with recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day.

In his Columbus Day proclamation in 2021, Joe Biden, then president, said that the holiday’s namesake “ushered in a wave of devastation: violence perpetrated against native communities, displacement and theft of tribal homelands, the introduction and spread of disease, and more”.

Columbus’s legacy still looms large, however – the District Columbia is named after him – and the Genoese explorer is still revered by some Italian-American groups as a symbol of national pride.