During a speech at Mount Rushmore on the eve of the fourth of July, President Trump announced that he was signing an executive order to create the National Garden of American Heroes, which he described as “a large outdoor park that will feature the statues one of the greatest Americans who ever lived. “
The order comes amid a national reckoning with racism after high-profile killings of black people sparked weeks of protests, and when protesters and local governments across the country remove monuments to those who benefited from the slavery.
The President has promised to protect the statues. At the Friday night event, he described calls for his removal, an effort to “defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children.” Last week, He issued an executive order aimed at punishing people who destroy monuments on federal property, and threatened to veto a defense spending bill if it requires military bases named after the names of Confederate officers to be renamed.
The executive order does not name a specific city where the park would be built, but says it should be “in a site of natural beauty” near at least one major population center. The order also says that the park should be open to the public before July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the formal adoption of the Declaration of Independence.
The order lists several “historically significant figures” that should be represented in the park:
- John Adams
- Susan B. Anthony
- Clara Barton
- Daniel Boone
- Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
- Henry Clay
- Davy Crockett
- Frederick Douglass
- Amelia Earhart
- Benjamin Franklin
- Billy Graham
- Alexander Hamilton
- Thomas Jefferson
- Martin Luther King Jr.
- Abraham Lincoln
- Douglas MacArthur
- Dolley madison
- James Madison
- Christa McAuliffe
- Audie murphy
- George S. Patton, Jr.
- Ronald reagan
- Jackie robinson
- Betsy Ross
- Antonin Scalia
- Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Harriet Tubman
- Booker T. Washington
- George Washington
- Orville and Wilbur Wright
The order says “historically significant figures” also includes people like Christopher Columbus, Junípero Serra, and the Marquis de La Fayette, “who lived before or during the American Revolution and were not US citizens, but who made substantial historical contributions to the discovery , development or independence of the future United States. “
Associated Press material was used in this report.
You can reach Amanda Kaufman at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @ amandakauf1.
