Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent paid tribute to Christopher Columbus’s expedition and bashed what he called the “radical left’s” attempt to erase his legacy from the national holiday.
“More than five centuries ago, the son of a wool weaver from Genoa sailed westward to widen the boundaries of the known world. Across a vast and punishing Atlantic, the voyage exhausted the patience of its crew, but never the conviction of its captain. Christopher Columbus kept going,” Bessent posted on X. “Two hundred and fifty years after America’s founding, we still marvel at the restless spirit of discovery that revealed the New World to the Old. President Trump has defended Columbus against the radical left’s campaign to erase his legacy. Now, Columbus again stands where he belongs — within the great procession of figures who shaped our national story. Happy Columbus Day. Sail On.”
President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the holiday in 1937 to be celebrated Oct. 12, to honor the explorer’s quest to the Americas despite the Italian explorer never setting foot on U.S. soil. Columbus Day was established to fall on the second Monday of October, and in 2026 it once again fell on Oct. 12.
Bessent’s post takes aim at those referring to the holiday as Indigenous Peoples Day, which is celebrated on the same date. President Joe Biden issued a presidential proclamation in 2021 creating Indigenous Peoples Day, although it hasn’t been made a federal holiday.
Indigenous Peoples Day provides an alternative option for those not wanting to recognize the controversial historical figure, and counters the narrative of Columbus being someone to idolize.
Columbus, for all his accomplishments in exploration, also had a brutal history of killing, raping, and enslaving natives, and forcing cultural assimilation and Christianity during his conquest of the Americas.
Although Biden was the first president to proclaim the holiday Indigenous Peoples Day, the concept was first introduced in 1977 when a group of Native nations proposed the idea at the U.N.’s International Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations in the Americas, according to the National Indian Council on Aging.
THUNE PANNED FOR ‘NATIVE AMERICANS’ DAY’ SOCIAL MEDIA POST
While Bessent’s post only references the “radical left’s” stance on Columbus Day, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) acknowledged “Native Americans’ Day” as he has previously done in his state of South Dakota, the first state to establish the holiday in 1990.
“Today is Native Americans’ Day in South Dakota, an opportunity to celebrate the heritage and contributions of the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota people,” Thune wrote.