President Donald Trump has signed a proclamation honoring Christopher Columbus as “the original American hero.”
The great Italian explorer who brought Western civilization and the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Americas.
Lauding Columbus as a “giant,” Trump called for Monday, October 13, to be celebrated as Columbus Day.
The move rejects years of left-wing attacks on the navigator and his legacy, as the New York Post notes.
“Columbus Day — we’re back, Italians,” Trump declared after signing the proclamation.
“We love the Italians,” the president added.
Many Americans remember classroom lessons about Columbus “sailing the ocean blue.”
In recent years, however, there have been efforts to disparage the bold navigator as one of history’s criminals for opening the New World to European settlement with his daring trans-Atlantic voyage in 1492.
Despite his heroic accomplishments, some argue that Columbus should be condemned for setting in motion the dispossession of the natives.
Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, was the first U.S. president to acknowledge Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
Many saw Biden’s move as an attempt to sideline Columbus and his memory.
But “those days are finally over,” Trump said.
“Today our Nation honors the legendary Christopher Columbus — the original American hero, a giant of Western civilization, and one of the most gallant and visionary men to ever walk the face of the Earth,” Trump wrote.
The statement continues:
“This Columbus Day, we honor his life with reverence and gratitude, and we pledge to reclaim his extraordinary legacy of faith, courage, perseverance, and virtue from the left-wing arsonists who have sought to destroy his name and dishonor his memory.”
Efforts to denigrate Columbus are particularly offensive to Americans of Italian descent.
For Italian-Americans, Columbus is a cultural icon.
Columbus Day was initially established as a federal holiday by President FDR.
It followed years of anti-Italian sentiment at the turn of the 20th century.
The killing of 11 Italians in New Orleans in 1891 remains the worst documented mass lynching in American history.
With his order, Trump clarified that Columbus should be celebrated as a hero by all Americans.
“Before our very eyes, left-wing radicals toppled his statues, vandalized his monuments, tarnished his character, and sought to exile him from our public spaces,” it said.
The president’s statement added:
“Under my leadership, those days are finally over — and our Nation will now abide by a simple truth: Christopher Columbus was a true American hero, and every citizen is eternally indebted to his relentless determination.”
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