President Donald Trump took to Truth Social back in April, promising to bring back Columbus Day, a long-established federal holiday falling on the second Monday in October. Some states and cities observe Indigenous Peoples Day instead.
But Trump kept his word by inking a new proclamation ahead of this holiday weekend.
During a Cabinet meeting on Day 9 of the federal government shutdown, Trump took a brief moment to sign an executive order celebrating the controversial Italian explorer, who is credited with discovering the so-called New World.
“Columbus Day, we’re back, Italians,” Trump proclaimed Thursday. “We love the Italians.”
‘In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue,’ so the famous nursery school rhyme goes — and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller did not shy away from sharing that history lesson.
“He sailed his three ships, the Niña, the Pinta and Santa María, across the Atlantic Ocean and landed in what’s today, the Caribbean,” said Miller. “But this is a particularly important holiday for Italian Americans who celebrate the legacy of Christopher Columbus and the innovation and explorer zeal that he represented.”
Native Americans don’t see eye-to-eye with Miller, and that’s why Indigenous Peoples Day is observed in more than 200 cities nationwide, like Phoenix, Tempe, Flagstaff and Tucson.
Arizona, however, is among 20 states, including Idaho and Utah, that still recognize Columbus Day as a paid holiday.
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