- Donald Trump claimed he was “bringing Columbus Day back from the ashes” in a social media post. The holiday, however, has been a consistent federal holiday since 1971.
Donald Trump says he’s “bringing Columbus Day back from the ashes,” but the holiday never went away and has been a continuous federal holiday since 1971.
In a social media post over the weekend, Trump said he was “reinstating Columbus Day under the same rules, dates, and locations, as it has had for all of the many decades before.” He did not offer details or indicate exactly how he thought the holiday had gone away.
Trump did take aim, in his post, at the backlash against Columbus that has emerged in recent years as more people became aware of the explorer’s less than heroic qualities, such as bringing disease, wars, and more ills to what would eventually become the U.S. and its brutalization of Native Americans.
That led to a symbolic renaming of the day to Indigenous People’s Day starting in 1992. Rather than focusing on Columbus, the day celebrates and honors Native American peoples and commemorates their histories and cultures. That alternate name was not recognized on a federal level until 2021, when a Biden proclamation also recognized Columbus Day by the Indigenous People’s Day name, without changing the name on the federal level.
Indigenous People’s Day is an official holiday in 13 states and dozens of cities that choose not to honor Columbus Day.
That was enough to enrage Trump, however. On social media, he wrote: “The Democrats did everything possible to destroy Christopher Columbus, his reputation, and all of the Italians that love him so much. They tore down his Statues, and put up nothing but ‘WOKE,’ or even worse, nothing at all!”
It’s not exactly new ground. In 2017, Trump heralded Columbus in a statement on the holiday, but made no mention of Native Americans.
Columbus Day 2025 will be celebrated on the second Monday in October, as it has been for more than 50 years.