Trump’s White House Goes Full Tony Soprano While Defending Statue of ‘Hero’ Christopher Columbus

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Somebody at the White House is a Sopranos fan.

Spokesman Davis Ingle quoted Tony Soprano verbatim while defending President Donald Trump’s plan to install a statue of Christopher Columbus at the White House on Wednesday.

“In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero,” Ingle told The Washington Post on Wednesday. “And he will continue to be honored as such by President Trump.”

If that line sounds familiar, it’s because that’s what Soprano told his son AJ after he criticized Columbus in a 2002 episode.

“Like it took guts to murder people and put them in chains,” AJ scoffed about Columbus.

“He discovered America is what he did!” a livid Tony replied. “He was a brave Italian explorer, and in this house, Christopher Columbus is a hero! End of story.”

That scene has morphed into a long-running meme on the internet — and a whole bunch of X users referenced it while reacting to the quote from Ingle. You can see a few of those below:

You get the idea.

The Washington Post reported the statue will be a revamped version of a statue President Ronald Reagan had installed in Baltimore, Maryland. That statue was later chucked into the harbor during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests and riots.

A businessman named Bill Martin who helped recover the statue and fix it up told WaPo it’ll be sent to the White House in a few weeks.

Many liberals have criticized Columbus over the last few decades for being, in their view, a genocidal conqueror. And some have taken to celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day as a counter to Columbus Day each October.

Trump has made it clear he is a big Columbus fan, on the other hand. He signed a proclamation last fall to honor Columbus Day on the second Monday of October each year, declaring “We’re back, Italians! We love the Italians!”

If you are unfamiliar with scene from season 4 of The Sopranos, you can watch it below:

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