President Donald Trump’s effort to create the National Garden of American Heroes received a major boost when lawmakers awarded it $40 million from the “Big Beautiful Bill.” Trump announced earlier this year that he had ordered the establishment of a new national park used to display statues that honor “the greatest Americans who ever lived.”
Trump signed a similar order in 2020 but it was rescinded by former President Joe Biden the next year.
New funding, new life
But the new funding and reinstated order are breathing fresh life into the project that is part of a larger effort to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary. The Trump administration aims to have the garden finished by July 2026.
The National Endowment for the Humanities has launched a campaign for people to apply for grants to construct the statues that will need to be completed from October to July.
Who’s on the list?
Currently, it’s unclear who will be included in the garden. The order Trump released in 2020 suggested the statues should be of “historically significant Americans,” including people from all walks of life, like scientists, authors, civil rights activists, police officers and teachers. The order states that of the historical figures chosen, “None will have lived the perfect lives, but all will be worth honoring, remembering, and studying.”
Just days before Biden took office, Trump signed an order in 2021 that expanded the number of people to be included in the garden to nearly 200. That list included figures like Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass, Amelia Earhart, Benjamin Franklin and Martin Luther King Jr., to name just a few.
Still more to be revealed
The president’s latest order directs the assistant to the president for domestic policy to come up with other potential figures to honor in the garden and bring the total number of individuals honored to 250.
The Trump administration has not released a comprehensive list of individuals selected for the project.
NEH stipulates that the statues must be made of materials such as bronze, marble, granite, copper or brass, and they must be life-sized. Officials have not yet disclosed the garden’s location.
The initial order stated that the designated area must be “on a site of natural beauty” near at least one populated area and must not disrupt the local community.
Trump first revealed his vision for the garden in front of Mount Rushmore and some people in South Dakota have expressed interest in having the statue garden there. A local mining operation that owns land near Mount Rushmore has even said it would donate some of its land for the proposed project.
