Trump Vows to Save Columbus Day as States Stay Divided

President Donald Trump used a White House celebration and a defiant Columbus Day proclamation to declare that the explorer's legacy will not be erased, even as the country's states remain deeply split on the holiday. According to a Pew Research Center analysis, 30 states recognize Columbus Day in some form — but only 20 make it a paid holiday, while 17 states and Washington, D.C. honor Indigenous Peoples' Day instead.

File photo: a statue of Christopher Columbus on Broad Street in Philadelphia. Columbus monuments have been flashpoints in America's debate over the holiday.

A Celebration in the East Room

On Friday, October 9, President Trump hosted a "Columbus Day Celebration" in the East Room of the White House, ahead of the federal holiday observed on the second Monday of October. The event was framed as a defense of the Italian explorer against what the administration describes as years of attacks on his legacy.

Trump has embraced Columbus as part of a broader effort to defend traditional American historical figures and symbols. During the East Room event, he made it clear he planned to protect Columbus and other figures in American history from efforts to tear down statues or erase them from the nation's memory. Coverage of the event noted that Trump accused Democrats of trying to abolish the holiday, singling out Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, whom he mocked by name — while, according to that same coverage, offering no specific evidence for the claim.

The celebration set the tone for a holiday that has become one of the country's most contested cultural battlegrounds: a day that is simultaneously a federal holiday, a celebration of Italian American heritage, and a target of protests over Columbus's treatment of Indigenous peoples and the consequences of European colonization.

The Proclamation and a Statue Rebuilt

The administration issued its 2026 Columbus Day proclamation on October 7. In it, Trump called on Americans to honor the explorer's life of "valor, adventure, and ingenuity" and to "pledge to safeguard his story." The proclamation strongly stated that the administration would "never allow his legacy to be erased by radical extremists."

Earlier this year, the White House installed a replica of a Columbus statue on its grounds — a replacement for the original that had stood in Baltimore since 1984. That statue was torn down by protesters and thrown into Baltimore Harbor on July 4, 2020. Although the original was too badly damaged to fully restore, the new statue is modeled on it and includes fragments of the original in its base, according to reports of the installation.

Trump has said the "days of plunder are over" and that the statues are "back, more magnificent than ever."

For the president's supporters, the statue's restoration carries symbolic weight far beyond the bronze itself. They point to the summer of 2020, when, in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, protests swept American cities and Columbus monuments were among the targets — supporters' accounts say more than 30 Columbus statues were vandalized, destroyed, or removed nationwide. In their view, the White House statue's return marks a reversal of what they describe as an era of cultural retreat.

A Patchwork Map: 30 States Say Yes, Others Walk Away

Columbus Day is a federal holiday, meaning federal offices were closed on Monday. But at the state level, observance is far from uniform — a patchwork that a Pew Research Center analysis mapped in detail.

According to Pew, 30 states recognize Columbus Day in some form. Yet only 20 of them make it a paid holiday for state government employees. In almost all of those states, the observance falls on the second Monday of October, though Washington state fixes its Columbus Day observance on October 12, and Puerto Rico commemorates Columbus's arrival there on November 19.

The states where Columbus Day stands alone as a paid holiday are: Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Georgia, West Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.

Seven states share the day with another observance. Alabama also marks American Indian Heritage Day and Fraternal Day, while Virginia calls it Yorktown Victory Day. Five others — Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island — share the date with Indigenous Peoples' Day.

In the remaining states, Columbus Day is either not recognized at all, or treated as an ordinary working day. The map tells a story of a holiday that survives in many places but commands uniform observance in few.

The Rise of Indigenous Peoples' Day

While Columbus Day holds its ground in some states, Indigenous Peoples' Day has been gaining ground elsewhere. Currently, 17 states plus Washington, D.C. recognize Indigenous people on the second Monday in October as a holiday — though there are different ways they do it.

Four states have a paid Indigenous Peoples' holiday without simultaneously recognizing Columbus Day: Maine, New Mexico, and Vermont replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples' Day in 2019, while South Dakota has observed Native American Day since 1990. Seven additional states officially recognize Indigenous people on that day without making the observance a paid state holiday. And as noted, six states — Alabama, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island — recognize an Indigenous observance while maintaining Columbus Day.

Native American advocates and other critics have long opposed celebrating Columbus, pointing to his treatment of Indigenous people and the consequences of colonization. For them, the second Monday in October is a day to honor the contributions and resilience of Indigenous peoples.

That view had a formal voice in Washington during the previous administration. Then-President Joe Biden's proclamations stated: "On Indigenous Peoples' Day, our Nation celebrates the invaluable contributions and resilience of Indigenous peoples, recognizes their inherent sovereignty, and commits to honoring the Federal Government's trust and treaty obligations to Tribal Nations."

For many Italian Americans, meanwhile, Columbus Day has historically served a different purpose: a celebration of immigrant heritage and of an explorer whose 1492 voyage linked the Old World and the New. That identity runs deep in cities like New York, where the Columbus Day parade remains a major annual event.

File photo: the East Room of the White House, where President Trump hosted a Columbus Day celebration on October 9.

What This Means

The fight over Columbus Day is no longer just about a 15th-century explorer. It has become a proxy for a larger argument about how America tells its own story — who gets honored, who gets questioned, and who gets to decide.

Trump's move to turn Columbus Day into a showpiece of his cultural agenda fits a pattern. The administration has consistently framed itself as the defender of figures like Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln against what it calls efforts by the "radical left" to rename schools, remove statues, and reframe history. Columbus, with a holiday attached to his name and a statue now on the White House grounds, is a convenient standard-bearer for that cause.

But the state-by-state map shows the limits of any single proclamation. The president can issue statements and install statues, but he cannot make a state give its workers the day off — or stop another state from renaming the holiday entirely. The patchwork reflects a country that is not converging on a shared verdict about Columbus, but rather settling into parallel observances.

The midterm elections, now three weeks away, add another layer. With culture-war issues energizing both parties' bases, a Columbus Day celebration at the White House lands squarely in campaign season — and Trump's decision to name-check a Michigan Senate candidate at the event made the political dimension explicit.

File photo: marchers waving Italian flags at a Columbus Day parade in New York. For many Italian Americans, the day celebrates immigrant heritage.

What Happens Next

In the near term, the most likely outcome is stasis: the federal holiday stays on the calendar, the states keep their own customs, and the annual October debate resumes each fall. There is no federal legislation in motion to rename or abolish Columbus Day, and no indication the administration plans anything beyond proclamations and symbolism.

At the state level, though, the trend lines are worth watching. Indigenous Peoples' Day has expanded steadily over the past decade, mostly through state legislatures and city councils acting one by one. If more states follow the path of Maine, New Mexico, and Vermont — replacing Columbus Day rather than sharing it — the number of states recognizing the explorer could shrink further, proclamation or not.

Trump's pledge that the statues are "back, more magnificent than ever" will be tested the next time a city council votes on a monument, or a state legislature takes up the calendar. The White House has chosen its side loudly. The states, as the map shows, will decide the rest — one capital at a time.