President Trump on Friday announced the location of his long-anticipated “National Garden of American Heroes,” one of several projects the administration is undertaking to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday.
Trump posted on Truth Social that the future statue garden will be in West Potomac Park, a national park adjacent to the National Mall, where cherry blossoms bloom along the Tidal Basin.
“When finished, West Potomac Park will be a World Class Masterpiece with elegant Landscaping, and adorned with Beautiful Statues, and be yet another one of my great projects to make Washington, D.C., the Safest and Most Beautiful Capital in the World,” he wrote.
The president revived plans for the project last year, building on an executive order he issued in June 2020 during his first term that called for the garden to be completed by July 4, 2026.
He said during a July 2020 speech at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota that he proposed the garden in response to what was described as “cancel culture” and “angry mobs” looking to “wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children.”
Those remarks came during a period of civil unrest following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, which saw the removal of more than 150 Confederate monuments and symbols.
The project did not receive funding from Congress before Trump’s first term ended, however, and former President Biden ultimately scrapped the plans in 2021.
When Trump returned to the Oval Office last year, he signed another executive order reinstating plans for the garden, to be executed “as expeditiously as possible.”
Documents from the National Endowment for the Humanities outline requirements for the look of the statues, noting they must be life-size and made out of “marble, granite, bronze, copper, or brass.”
Trump previously put forward a slate of Americans whom the garden intends to honor, with the president noting in his post on Friday that the list includes “Founding Fathers, Military Warriors, Religious Leaders, Civil Rights Champions, World Class Athletes, Artists, Entertainers” and others.
“The people of America (and the World!) will come here to learn and be inspired by the ‘Greats,’” he wrote at the time.
The Trump administration has released a full itinerary of events and beautification projects to commemorate the U.S. semiquincentennial, including an IndyCar Series race around the National Mall and a UFC fight on the White House grounds this summer.
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