'Monuments matter': Christopher Columbus statue standing tall once again even after radicals did their worst



One of personages repeatedly targeted for erasure in the American left's violent iconoclasm in 2020 has at last found asylum on the White House grounds, thanks to President Donald Trump and some other unrelenting American patriots.

Toppling giants

Liberals appear to have no issue raising and keeping statues in public spaces so long as they are culturally, morally, and/or historically subversive.

Take, for example, the golden statue of a horned monster that was erected atop the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court in January 2023.

The dehumanized figure — which Pakistani-born propagandist Shahzia Sikander purportedly designed to capture the "spirit" of the movement seeking to legalize abortion across the United States — was celebrated by radicals in and outside the courthouse. Claire Bishop, professor of art history at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, excitedly told the New York Times, "Maybe she can help channel us back to reinstating Roe v. Wade."

Another statue that liberal activists not only tolerated but celebrated was the ram-headed Baphomet statue the Satanic Temple installed at the Iowa Capitol along with a satanic altar ahead of Christmas that same year.

While evidently unperturbed by demonic imagery, liberal activists have evidenced an aversion in recent years to sculptures reminiscent of America's proud past, noble beginnings, and Christian character.

'These monuments matter.'

Amid the Black Lives Matter-bannered deracination campaign of 2020, radicals vandalized and/or toppled — in many cases through official actions — numerous statutes across the country, including those depicting Spanish missionary Junípero Serra and Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington.

Christopher Columbus — the Italian "Admiral of the Ocean Sea" who sailed under the Spanish flag and whose four transatlantic voyages set the stage for American civilization — was one of the 2020 iconoclasts' most popular targets.

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Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

In Baltimore, masked thugs marched through the city's Little Italy neighborhood on July 4, 2020, then toppled a Columbus statue dedicated in 1984 by former Mayor William Donald Schaefer and President Ronald Reagan — a destructive act brushed off by city officials.

After tearing down the statue and jumping on the broken Italian Carrara marble likeness of the explorer, the cheering mob threw the remains into the harbor.

The incident took place just days after President Donald Trump, then in his first term, issued an executive order aimed at protecting such statues from destruction — an order where he stated that extremists' "selection of targets reveals a deep ignorance of our history, and is indicative of a desire to indiscriminately destroy anything that honors our past."

Stoop and build 'em up

Some Americans proved unwilling to let the tide wash away American history.

Tilghman Hemsley, a local painter, sculptor, and fisherman, hired a dive team to recover the broken pieces, which were taken to his family's art studio. Hemsley's son, Will, used scans of the recovered pieces to create a replica of the 13-foot statue.

The New York Times reported that the recreation project received $30,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which awarded funds in October 2020 "to help repair and restore statues of iconic historical figures that have been damaged or vandalized, and to construct new ones, in an effort to revitalize public interest in American history in advance of the nation's 250th anniversary in 2026."

Bill Martin, an Italian-American businessman, told the Washington Post that he and his allies also chipped in, raising and spending over $100,000 on the recovery and restoration efforts.

John Pica Jr., the president of Italian American Organizations United — the group that not only commissioned and owned the original statue but reportedly backed the reconstruction efforts — told the Associated Press that he was contacted in 2025 by a middleman who indicated the White House was seeking a statue of Columbus.

RELATED: Blue-state city leans into battle against ACLU over archangel Michael statue honoring police

Will Hemsley. Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images.

Basil Russo, president of the Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations, had reportedly reached out to the Trump administration after Baltimore officials refused to install the replica in public.

'In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero.'

"Columbus statues have long stood as symbols of pride and cultural identity for more than 18 million Americans of Italian descent," Russo said in a statement.

"For over a century, Columbus' legacy helped Italian immigrants navigate prejudice and hardship, serving as a source of unity and belonging as they built new lives in this country," Russo continued. "Columbus Day itself emerged in the aftermath of the 1891 New Orleans lynching, when 11 Italian immigrants were killed by a mob of thousands, an event that prompted a national effort to promote the acceptance and assimilation of Italian Americans. This history remains central to why these monuments matter."

Working in coordination with the Italian American Organizations United, the COPOMIAO gifted the statue to the White House.

On Sunday, the statue — which was reportedly transported to the White House by Tilghman and Will Hemsley along with Randsallstown resident Jeff Bayer — was installed on the north side of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to the White House.

Trump thanked the COPOMIAO in a letter on Sunday for its "incredible generosity in gifting the Federal Government a beautiful statue of Christopher Columbus," noting that he is "truly honored that this magnificent statue will now sit on the grounds of the White House."

The president said further that the statue will "stand as an eternal memorial to courage, adventure, and the noblest aspirations of the human spirit as well as the extraordinary pride of our wonderful Italian American community."

White House spokesman Davis Ingle told the Times in a statement Sunday, "In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero, and President Trump will ensure he's honored as such for generations to come."

Tilghman Hemsley told the Baltimore Sun that the statue's installation "was very climactic and it was very fulfilling."

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Blue-state city leans into battle against ACLU over archangel Michael statue honoring police



A Massachusetts city in the Greater Boston area has made abundantly clear that it will not be dominated by the sensitivities of activists — those whose apparent discomfort with America's Christian inheritance has them fighting to hide civic symbols of courage, honor, and bravery.

Dealt a legal setback in October, the city of Quincy is now asking the state's top court to weigh in on the matter of an angel and a saintly firefighter.

Saints and iconoclasts

Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch commissioned renowned sculptor Sergey Eylanbekov to design two 10-foot-tall bronze statues heavy with cultural and historical significance to honor police and firefighters outside their new public safety headquarters.

While the city had erected other statues by Eylanbekov without issue, this time was different as the new statues also carried religious significance — one depicting Florian, a 3rd-century firefighting Roman Christian, and the other depicting the winged archangel Michael stepping on the head of a demon.

The statues have many fans in the community, including Quincy Police Chief Mark Kennedy, who indicated he feels "honored" by the Michael statue, and Quincy Firefighters Local 792 president Tom Bowes, who said, "Florian embodies the values that are most important to our work as firefighters: honor, courage, and bravery."

Not all were, however, pleased.

'If beautiful art has religious meaning to anyone, it must be hidden away from everyone.'

The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Massachusetts, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State joined a handful of locals in suing last May to block the installation.

Among the plaintiffs are:

  • a Unitarian social justice warrior;
  • a self-identified Catholic who finds the "violent imagery" of good triumphing over evil to be "offensive";
  • a local synagogue member who suggested the images "may exacerbate the current rise in anti-Semitism";
  • an Episcopalian who believes that walking past such statues would amount to "submission to religious symbols"; and
  • a lapsed Catholic who suggested the image of Michael stepping on the head of a demon was "reminiscent of how George Floyd was killed."

Their lawsuit claimed that "affixing religious icons of one particular faith to a government facility — the city's public safety building, no less — sends an alarming message that those who do not subscribe to the city's preferred religious beliefs are second-class residents who should not feel safe, welcomed, or equally respected by their government."

The complaint strategically neglected to mention the significance of Michael in other religions, in the Western literary canon, and pop culture. Similarly, it largely glossed over Florian's potential secular appeal, emphasizing his recognition by Catholics as a saint.

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Detail from 17th century painting of Michael vanquishing Satan. Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images via Getty Images

Mayor Koch emphasized in an affidavit that "the selection had nothing to do with Catholic sainthood, but rather was an effort to boost morale and to symbolize the values of truth, justice, and the prevalence of good over evil."

The plaintiffs evidently saw things differently as their complaint suggested the statues' installation "will not serve a predominantly secular purpose," but rather to "promote, promulgate, and advance one faith, subordinating other faiths as well as nonreligious traditions."

Setback

Norfolk Superior Court obliged the iconoclasts in October, blocking the planned installation of the already purchased and completed statues while the case proceeds.

Judge William Sullivan, a Democratic appointee, said in his ruling that "the Complaint raises colorable concerns that members of the community not adherent to Catholicism or Christian teaching who pass beneath the two statues to report a crime may reasonably question whether they will be treated equally."

The judge suggested further that the statues "serve no discernable secular purpose."

"Although defendants argue that the public has an interest in inspiring the city's first responders in carrying out their work to maximum effectiveness, the court does not conceive the ability, commitment, and enthusiasm of members of the Quincy Police and Fire Departments to serve the communities will be appreciably undermined if the two statues are absent for the duration of this litigation," added Sullivan.

The ACLU — which has alternatively defended the erection of satanic displays on public grounds — celebrated the ruling with Massachusetts chapter staff attorney Rachel Davidson thanking Sullivan for "acknowledging the immediate harm that the installation of these statues would cause."

Onwards and upwards

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court agreed last month to hear an appeal of the lesser court's ruling — an opportunity welcomed both by the ACLU of Massachusetts and the city of Quincy.

"We look forward to defending Quincy’s plan to honor our brave first responders at the Massachusetts high court," Mayor Koch said at the time.

The city — represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and Quincy solicitor James Timmins — filed a brief with the SJC on Wednesday, making mince meat of the activists' arguments and underscoring the statues' permissibility under the law.

The brief reiterated that the statues have a secular purpose; their primary effect will not be to advance religion; and their prohibition based on religious hostility would violate the U.S. Constitution.

The brief noted further that the plaintiffs lack standing "since merely observing public symbols one finds disagreeable is not a cognizable injury" and that "the placement of inanimate statues as public art on a public building does not implicate direct support of religion in any manner, let alone the subordination by law of some faiths to others."

To prohibit the statues would also be "at odds with the robust history of public display of other symbols with religious significance" in the state, said the brief.

There are, for instance, statues of Moses and "Religion" in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Courthouse; a statue of Pope John Paul II — a Catholic saint — in the Boston Common; and a statue of Quaker martyr Mary Dyer outside the Massachusetts State House in Boston.

"The ACLU’s theory in this case is tragically simple: If beautiful art has religious meaning to anyone, it must be hidden away from everyone," Joseph Davis, senior counsel at Becket and an attorney for the city of Quincy, said in a statement.

"The ACLU’s radical rule flouts our nation’s civic heritage and decades of court decisions," continued Davis. "The Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court should reject the ACLU’s Puritanical demands and make clear that artworks don’t have to be purged from the public square just because they might make someone think of religion."

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'Thugs do not rule America': Replica of Columbus statue toppled by liberal mob may soon have a home — the White House



President Donald Trump is preparing to install a statue commemorating Christopher Columbus outside the White House. So there's no mistaking the counterrevolutionary and restorative nature of this act, the White House will reportedly erect a replica of the figure that iconoclasts unceremoniously tore down and tossed into Baltimore's harbor on July 4, 2020.

Columbus' four transatlantic voyages opened the way for European exploration of the Americas. While once celebrated for his courage and ambition — such that counties, cities, and towns across the United States were named after him — the Italian "Admiral of the Ocean Sea" who sailed under the Spanish flag has in recent years been subjected to routine defamation and denunciations by liberals.

Columbus' memory and likeness were especially popular targets during the left's Black Lives Matter-bannered deracination and iconoclasm campaign of 2020 that saw graves dug up, animals and places renamed, church windows busted, and cities torched.

As various municipalities and institutions such as the Smithsonian advocated for dropping Columbus Day in favor of "Indigenous Peoples' Day," radicals vandalized and toppled statues commemorating the Italian explorer across the country.

'Thugs do not rule America.'

In Baltimore, masked thugs marched through the city's Little Italy neighborhood on July 4, 2020, in search of a target. After harassing restaurant patrons and other residents, the thugs set to work on toppling a Columbus statue dedicated in 1984 by former Mayor William Donald Schaefer and President Ronald Reagan.

After tearing down the statue and jumping on the broken Italian Carrara marble likeness of the great explorer — acts that were brushed off by city officials — the cheering mob chucked the broken pieces into the harbor.

RELATED: Debate is always welcome, but violence is never acceptable

A piece of the Christopher Columbus statue is pulled from the harbor in Baltimore on July 6, 2020. Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images.

Artist Tilghman Hemsley hired a dive team to recover the broken pieces, which were taken to his family's art studio. Using 3D scans of the remains, the artist, working in concert with his son, digitally reassembled the statue, then created a mold to fashion a replica out of crushed marble and resin, reported the Baltimore Sun.

"We brought it out of the harbor and reconstructed it, rebuilt it," Hemsley told the Sun. "So it's not really our artwork, but we were instrumental in putting it back together. It's like Humpty Dumpty."

Bill Martin, an Italian-American businessman, told the newly thinned-out Washington Post that he and his allies ultimately raised and spent over $100,000 on the recovery and restoration efforts.

'One of the most gallant and visionary men to ever walk the face of the earth.'

John Pica Jr., the president of Italian American Organizations United and a former Democratic Maryland state senator, told the Associated Press that he was contacted in 2025 by a middleman who indicated the White House was seeking a statue of Columbus.

Pica's organization took a straw vote and unanimously decided to send a statue to the White House. They reportedly signed the loan agreement on Wednesday.

Pica told the AP that he was "cautiously optimistic" that the statue would make it to the White House and noted that it could possibly be installed "within two weeks."

Two people with knowledge of the counterrevolutionary initiative told the Washington Post that the statue will likely be installed on the south side of the White House grounds, by E Street and north of the Ellipse.

Nino Mangione, a Republican member of the Maryland House of Delegates who was involved in the effort to recover the statue, stated, "Thrilled at the possibility our Columbus statue could be placed at the White House! Stolen, vandalized, and dumped in the harbor in 2020 yet never forgotten."

"Six years later it rises again as a symbol of Italian American pride. Thugs do not rule America," added Mangione.

The statue's potentially imminent installation comes just months after Trump issued a proclamation honoring Columbus, calling him "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 pledged to "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."

Although the White House would not comment on any statues, White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement to Blaze News, "In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero. And he will continue to be honored as such by President Trump."

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Harris haunted by her revisionism and past attacks on Columbus Day



Leftists have worked feverishly in recent years to deracinate and disorient the population, severing America's ties with its history and vilifying those dynamic figures who paved the way for the United States to ultimately become the envy of the world.

Over the course of this resentment-fueled campaign, iconoclasts and revisionists have changed place names, renamed species, toppled hundreds of statues, melted down busts, removed church windows, advanced bogus alternate histories, dug up graves, and built a parasitic industry geared toward racial division.

The Trump campaign and other critics issued reminders Monday that Kamala Harris has long been a proponent of this campaign — and that Columbus Day is one of her many targets.

Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for the Trump campaign, told Fox News Digital, "Kamala Harris is your stereotypical leftist. Not only does she want to raise taxes and defund the police, she also wants to cancel American traditions like Columbus Day."

Leavitt appears to have been referring to Harris' indication prior to the collapse of her previous presidential campaign that she would officially change "Columbus Day" to "Indigenous Peoples' Day."

When asked at a 2019 town hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, whether she supported the controversial name change, the Washington Times reported that Harris first began by talking about legislating to make lynching a federal crime.

'Those explorers ushered in a wave of devastation for tribal nations — perpetrating violence, stealing land, and spreading disease.'

"People did not want to deal and accept and most importantly admit that we are the scene of a crime when it comes to what we did with slavery and Jim Crow and institutionalized racism in this country, and we have to be honest about that," said then-Sen. Harris. "If we are not honest, we are not going to deal with the vestiges of all of that harm, and we are not going to correct course, and we are not going to be true to our values and morals."

Harris added, "Similarly when it comes to indigenous Americans, the indigenous people, there is a lot of work that we still have to do, and I appreciate and applaud your point and your effort, and count me in on support."

On her first Columbus Day as vice president, Harris issued a statement effectively condemning the immigrants who first diversified the continent:

It is an honor to be with you this week as we celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day, as we speak truth about our nation's history. Since 1934, every October the United States has recognized the voyage of the European explorers who first landed on the shores of the Americas. But that is not the whole story. That has never been the whole story. Those explorers ushered in a wave of devastation for tribal nations — perpetrating violence, stealing land, and spreading disease. We must not shy away from this shameful past, and we must shed light on it and do everything we can to address the impact of the past on native communities today.

In 2022 and 2023, Harris doubled down, celebrating the Columbus Day alternate.

Columbus Day, which commemorates the daring 15th-century Italian whose four transatlantic voyages opened the way for European exploration of Americas, is one of 11 official federal holidays.

The Pew Research Center noted that it was first observed as a federal holiday in 1937 — initially conceived of as a celebration of Italian-American heritage and largely the result of lobbying by the Knights of Columbus.

The Knights of Columbus is a Catholic fraternal organization known for its charitable outreach. Not only does Harris want to rename its hard-won holiday, she has suggested that the group's members' Catholic faith disqualifies them from serving in federal courts.

As of October 2023, only 16 American states and the territory of America Samoa observe the second Monday in October as an official public holiday called Columbus Day.

Axios noted that the day is officially known as "Indigenous Peoples' Day" in New Mexico, Maine, Vermont, and Washington, D.C.

President Joe Biden proclaimed Oct. 14, 2024, both "Indigenous Peoples' Day" and Columbus Day.

"President Trump will make sure Christopher Columbus' great legacy is honored and protect this holiday from radical leftists who want to erase our nation's history like Kamala Harris," added Leavitt.

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Porsche apologizes after viewers notice it erased a historic Christian landmark from its new ad



Porsche elicited outrage over the weekend after keen observers recognized the company had edited a historic Christian landmark of its new advertisement. Although the German company has issued an apology and taken down the video, questions persist about the motivations behind the company's virtual iconoclasm.

The German company, owned by the Volkswagen Group, recently put out a video celebrating 60 "very fast years" of its signature two-door sports cars, the latest of which goes for over $290,000.

In the original iconoclastic version of the video — which has been rendered private on YouTube by the company but saved by one Twitter user — the car whizzes through the decades, years, and various locales, interrupted by the captions, "No matter how fast you move forward ... never forget where you come from."

Despite this plea to remember the past, viewers noticed that the company saw fit to erase one key piece of history from memory.

As the 911 speeds past the 25th Abril Bridge, which connects the Portuguese capital city of Lisbon to the municipality Almada, a pedestal can be seen in the background without its historic statue.

That 269-foot base has been holding up the iconic Cristo Rei ("Christ the King") statue since before the first Porsche 911 took to European asphalt.

After World War II — and the conclusion of Porsche's days manufacturing war machines for the Nazi Reich, likely with forced labor — Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon Don Manuel Gonçalves Cerejeira ordered this monument be made, taking inspiration from the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The statue of Jesus Christ was intended as thanks to God for sparing Portugal from the ravages of the war, according to Lonely Planet.

Portugal.net indicated that the 92-foot statue and its 269-foot base were approved by Portuguese bishops in 1937. Construction began in 1946, and the monument was officially inaugurated in 1959.

It appears the marketing team at Porsche figured 2023 was an ideal time to virtually raze it.

— (@)

The erasure of the Christian symbol from the European car company's promotional footage has triggered fury online.

The Twitter account Wall Street Silver asked, "Why would they do that?"

Ricardo Regalla Dias Pinto, chief of staff for the right-wing Portuguese politician André Ventura, tweeted, "For me, @Porsche is not an option anymore!"

Jack Posobiec, senior editor at Human Events, wrote, "They aren't hiding it anymore. They won't stop until Christ is erased from the world."

A Gays Against Groomers ambassador from Portugal wrote, "As a proud Lisboeta and a Christian, this is disgusting to me. If you don't like my country's culture, don't f***ing film there @Porsche."

Polish lawyer and politician Kacper Płażyński tweeted, "'Progressive Free World.' Well, @Porsche made a fortune from World War II and the supply of engines for German (slave-built) tanks. Hitler wanted to destroy Christianity. @Porsche sticks to his Nazi roots."

Płażyński appears to have been referencing how Adolf Hitler vowed by 1942 to "root out and destroy the influence of Christian Churches," deeming them "the evil that is gnawing our vitals," as reported by the Washington Post.

Hitler reportedly told the German politician Hermann Rauschning that he intended "to stamp out Christianity root and branch" and stated elsewhere, "We will wash off the Christian veneer and bring out a religion peculiar to our race."

Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn noted in "Leftism" that the Nazis planned "for a total crushing of Christianity to be carried out after a victory which, fortunately, never came," stating on Feb. 2, 1942, that he would exterminate Christianity, referring to the religion as a "cultural scandal."

Concerning Porsche's latest scandal, a spokesman for the company told the Daily Mail, "In a previously uploaded version of the 911 S/T launch film, a landmark was removed. This was a mistake, and we apologise for any offence caused. The original film is online now."

The company told Fox Business in another statement, "In an early version of a film created in Europe, the Cristo Rei Statue does not appear. We are truly sorry and can fully understand the hurt this has caused. This film has been removed."

The Daily Mail indicated that this is hardly unprecedented.

For instance, in 2017, the German international retail chain Lidl, which has stores in the U.S., erased Christian symbols from packaging to remain "religiously neutral."

While woke corporations apparently seek to stealthily erase Christian culture, Western leftists have taken a less subtle approach in the streets.

Radicals tore down a downtown Los Angeles statue of Fr. Junípero Serra — recognized by Catholics as a saint — in 2020.

Another Serra statue was toppled in San Francisco the same year, along with several more religious statues of Christ and Mary.

BLM activist Shaun King called for the destruction of all statues depicting Jesus as white.

Many such statues have been destroyed amid a spate of North American church burnings.

Watch the original video here:

— (@)

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