President Donald Trump Says He Is Bringing Columbus Day Back — It Never Actually Left

According to CNN, Columbus Day was celebrated across the United States until 1990. That's when South Dakota first began referring to the second Monday in October as Native American Day. Two years later, Berkeley, Calif., followed suit on the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in America when they embraced Indigenous Peoples' Day as a form of protest.

As of October 2023, Pew Research reports that only "16 states and the territory of American Samoa still observe the second Monday in October as an official public holiday exclusively called Columbus Day." Former President Biden issued an executive order on Oct. 11, 2021, declaring that day to be Indigenous Peoples’ Day and urging the people of the United States to "observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities." Was Columbus Day actually canceled? Here's what we know.

Although Biden was the first U.S. president to formally recognize Indigenous Peoples' Day, he also issued an executive order celebrating Columbus Day. "Today, let this day be one of reflection — on America’s spirit of exploration, on the courage and contributions of Italian Americans throughout the generations, on the dignity and resilience of Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities, and on the work that remains ahead of us to fulfill the promise of our Nation for all," he wrote.

Columbus Day has not been canceled and is still recognized as a federal holiday. What Biden did was honor the American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians whose land was colonized by the British and other Europeans. "We must never forget the centuries-long campaign of violence, displacement, assimilation, and terror wrought upon Native communities and Tribal Nations throughout our country," said the former president, while listing the ways those people contributed to the United States.

On April 27, 2025, President Donald Trump took to Truth Social in order to declare he's "bringing Columbus Day back from the ashes." The president accused Democrats of doing "everything possible to destroy Christopher Columbus, his reputation, and all of the Italians that love him so much." He went on to say they "tore down his Statues, and put up nothing but 'WOKE,' or even worse, nothing at all!"

Per his post, Trump is "reinstating Columbus Day under the same rules, dates, and locations, as it has had for all of the many decades before!" It's worth noting that no laws have been enacted regarding the removal of statues, and according to Monumental Lab, there are still 149 public monuments to Christopher Columbus in the United States. In fact, when it comes to the number of statues, Columbus is third after George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

The official Facebook page for The White House posted an image of Trump wearing sunglasses, next to a statue of Columbus with photoshopped sunglasses. The caption above reads, "Christopher Columbus is so back," with a hands clapping emoji. "Celebrating an Italian-born Spanish explorer who couldn’t do his job and got lost on his way to the Indies. Sounds like DEI to me," commented one person. Another asked, "Who’s going to tell this man that Columbus Day is already on the calendar?"