President Donald Trump said his National Garden of American Heroes would open by July 4 for America’s 250th birthday. It won’t, but thanks to a fundraising brochure, we can see the not-yet-approved plans for a space celebrating “freedom, patriotism and American exceptionalism.”
The brochure shows land near the National Mall as a landscaped area with gardens and pools that features groupings of 250 statues, including Sacagawea, Elvis Presley, Barry Goldwater, Martin Luther King Jr., John Wayne, Walt Disney and Steve Jobs.
Nobody knows if or when the project will open, or how much of the $40 million allocated by Congress for the project in Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” has been spent, say The New York Times and Washington Post, which was first to report on the brochure.
The National Garden is just one of the ways Trump is trying to leave his imprint on D.C.’s architecture. He’s already torn down the East Wing of White House to build a ballroom, renamed the John F. Kennedy Center to honor himself, and announced plans for a massive arch that would be taller than France’s Arc de Triomphe.
Trump announced the garden project in a July 2020 executive order that was updated days before he left office in January 2021. The order, which features mini-biographies of 245 people, was written after the murder of George Floyd and reflects Trump’s anger about the protests that spread across the nation and toppled some statues of Confederate generals and others.
“Across this nation, belief in the greatness and goodness of America has come under attack in recent months and years by a dangerous anti-American extremism that seeks to dismantle our country’s history, institutions, and very identity,” it says.
The Garden of American Heroes was intended to counteract “this reckless attempt to erase our heroes, values and entire way of life,” said the order. “When the forces of anti-Americanism have sought to burn, tear down and destroy, patriots have built, rebuilt and lifted up.”
Life-sized statues are slated to show “statesmen and political leaders; military heroes and patriots; athletes and competitors; scientists, inventors and explorers; entrepreneurs and industrialists; artists and architects; musicians and performers; faith leaders, humanitarians and servants of God; pioneers and reformers; and Civil Rights leaders.”
Faith leaders include Katharine Drexel, Jonathan Edwards, George Fox, Dorothy Day, Billy Graham, John Neumann, Junípero Serra, Elizabeth Ann Seton, Thomas Merton and pioneering TV Bishop Fulton Sheen.
The “scholars and philosophers” category features Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau but is otherwise dominated by conservative thinkers: Hannah Arendt, William F. Buckley Jr., Peter Drucker, Milton Friedman, Russell Kirk.
Perhaps because Trump views news reporters as the “enemy of the people,” there are only two “journalists” selected: CBS television’s Edward R. Murrow and Alex Trebek, the long-running Jeopardy! game show host.
Many of the mini-biographies have a homespun feel, and some historians claim they have been “sanitized.”
The statue garden will feature these Civil Rights leaders: Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass, Medgar Evers, Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King Jr., Lucretia Mott, Rosa Parks, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells.
But the 245 mini-biographies feature only one reference to “injustice,” “slave” or “slavery” and no references to racism.
The bio of Martin Luther King Jr. has no references to “race” or Civil Rights but says he was “a brilliant minister and leader who called on the United States to fulfill the true promise of its founding. He believed deeply in the words of the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal with God-given rights.”
At times, the absence of references to race makes it harder to understand heroes’ accomplishments. Phillis Wheatley, who is hailed as the first African American to author a published book of poetry, is described as “a brilliant poet and a woman of deep faith who became the first American of her background to publish a book of verse.” There’s no explanation of what her “background” was.
Wheatley and King are two of 32 heroes described as having a “can-do” spirit. There are 78 heroes who had “faith” and 109 who exhibited “strength.”
Other heroes include Charlton Heston (actor and president of the National Rifle Association), musician Johnny Cash (“a symbol of the authentic and enduring soul of America”), Samuel Colt (“most famous for inventing the revolving cylinder firearm”), Theodor Seuss Geisel or Dr. Seuss (“who used his imagination to strengthen the American heart”) and Woody Guthrie (“a legendary folk singer and songwriter whose music captured the rugged heart and the hardworking spirit of the American people”).
It’s not clear if Trump will forge ahead with his plans or will instead seek formal approvals, which could make it difficult to complete the project during his second term.
It’s unlikely the $40 million appropriated by Congress will be enough to complete the project. If Trump seeks to fund the garden with donations, as he planned to do with his ballroom, that could raise additional hurdles.