Washington correspondent -  Christopher Columbus and the 20 million Americans with Italian roots are entering the midterm election spotlight. This morning, President Donald Trump will host an early Columbus Day celebration at the White House, welcoming prominent members of the Italian American community and honoring the contributions of Italian immigrants and their descendants to the building of modern America. The federal holiday falls on Monday, when New York will hold its traditional parade along Fifth Avenue.

Presiding over the event will be a nearly 13-foot statue of Columbus installed outside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on March 22. It is a replica of the monument that was vandalized and thrown into Baltimore’s harbor in the spring of 2020, amid protests against colonization and slavery. Some activists hold the Genoese explorer, who reached the Americas in 1492, responsible for helping set those forces in motion.

For Trump, the statue’s installation symbolizes his appreciation for and solidarity with Italian Americans — and Italians more broadly.

A Columbus statue vandalized in 2020

The President is counting on Italian American voters to remember the gesture, along with the many initiatives and decisions he has championed on their behalf. He has made no secret of that hope.

In March, Trump declared: “The Italian people are very happy. Remember, when you go into the voting booth, that I brought back Columbus Day” — a holiday he has claimed to have “raised from the ashes.”

Then, on Sept. 7, posting a photograph of the statue outside the Executive Office Building on Truth Social, Trump said he had installed it “in honor of the Italian American community, which is hardworking, brilliant and magnificent.” Today’s event could drive that message home even further.

There are about 20 million Italian Americans, although other estimates put the figure closer to 16 million. According to the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, 4.8% of Americans identify as having Italian roots, down from 5.2% in 1980.

Last year, the White House issued a statement celebrating the return of Columbus Day observances after the Biden administration had replaced them with Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

“It will be the most sought-after event in town,” White House Press Secretary Davis Ingle told The Washington Post, adding that “in this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero, and President Trump will ensure that he is honored for generations to come.”

Appealing to Italian American voters is another tactic Trump is using to preserve the Republican majority in Congress. Polls are working against that goal, and even Republicans privately concede that the party is likely to lose control of the House. The Senate, which until a few months ago seemed safely out of Democrats’ reach, is now also competitive.

Seven States are considered toss-ups, and Democratic prospects are improving in three others. The striking development is that traditionally Republican strongholds — including Texas, Kansas, Iowa, Alaska and Nebraska — are now showing signs of vulnerability, prompting Trump and Vice President JD Vance to campaign in those States.

Yesterday, the President took a break from campaigning. Today, however, he will be in New York State.

Trump also attended a summit titled “Science: A New Golden Age” at the U.S. Institute of Peace, where he presented science medals to leading technology executives for their work on “superintelligence.” In a post on Truth Social, he also warned that anyone who insisted on calling it artificial intelligence would be considered an enemy.

Trump awarded the Science Medal to Elon Musk, Lisa Su of AMD, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

While the president celebrates tech industry leaders, his administration is opening another front against Microsoft. The dispute centers on H-1B visas, which allow U.S. employers to hire highly skilled foreign workers.

According to Vance, who heads the administration’s anti-fraud task force, Microsoft has abused the system by laying off 6,000 American workers while bringing in 9,300 people through green cards and H-1B visas.

“No one has abused this system more than Microsoft,” the vice president said at a news conference, announcing a crackdown on the visas.

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