Trump's vision for the garden includes the creation of 250 statues depicting notable Founding Fathers, activists, political figures, businesspeople, athletes, celebrities, and pop culture icons.[4][6][3][7][8][9] Initial reactions by historians was largely negative, with many criticizing the choices as seemingly random and political.[10] Reactions by sculptors was also negative, with many describing the requested criteria for the statues as unrealistic and unworkable for the money and timetable expected.[11]
History
Trump's order said that the proposed garden would be managed by the Task Force for Building and Rebuilding Monuments to American Heroes, which would allocate funding from the Interior Department to establish the site. Members of the task force would include chairs of the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities, the Administrator of General Services, the chair of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and any additional "officers or employees of any executive department or agency" designated by the president.[12] Trump described the garden as a response to the practice of removing monuments and memorials; many such monuments were removed or destroyed in 2020 as part of a response to the George Floyd protests.[2][12] In his Mount Rushmore speech announcing the proposal, Trump claimed that "Angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our founders, deface our most sacred memorials and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities" and pledged to build "a vast outdoor park that will feature the statues of the greatest Americans to ever live".[10]
Under Trump's Executive Order 13934, issued July 3, 2020, the task force was granted 60 days to develop preliminary plans for the site, including a potential location,[13] and was to open before July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.[12] The original executive order listed 31 historical figures as examples of those who would receive a statue in the Garden.[1] On January 18, 2021—two days before leaving office—Trump signed a new executive order listing 244 historical figures, including all 31 previously named, of those who would receive statues.[14][15][16][17] That revised list included 192 men and 52 women.[18]
In 2021, the garden was considered highly unlikely to ever be built, and Congress never appropriated any funds for the project.[19] On May 14, 2021, President Joe Biden issued an executive order that revoked both of Trump's executive orders on the Garden, as well as various other Trump-issued executive orders.[4][20][21]
On January 29, 2025, Trump revoked Biden's executive order related to the garden and called for six additional names to be added to the list of historical figures. The timeline of its construction was modified from July 4, 2026, to "as expeditiously as possible".[9] During a 2025 Black History Month reception at the White House, Trump said a statue of Prince Estabrook, a Black Patriot, would be in the garden.[22]Vince Haley, chair of the Domestic Policy Council, would be responsible for selecting the final list of 250 subjects.[23]
In March 2025 South Dakota Governor Larry Rhoden sent Trump a proposal to build the garden in the Black Hills region in the state near Mount Rushmore on a plot of private land that will be donated.[24]
In April 2025, the National Endowment for the Humanities announced it would sponsor grants to artists for the planned works, in a joint effort with the National Endowment for the Arts.[23]
Funding and legislative authorization
In April 2025, the National Endowment for the Humanities announced a grant program of $200,000 per statue paid for in part by canceled grants for other arts and humanities projects by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. It directed that statues were portrayed in a "realistic manner", with no modernist or abstract designs allowed.[25]
In May 2025, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a comprehensive budget reconciliation package. [5] Section 80305 of the bill appropriates $40 million to the Department of the Interior to establish and maintain the National Garden of American Heroes.
The bill's passage marked the first congressional funding for the garden, which had previously been authorized solely through executive orders during President Trump's first term. [26]
Reception
Initial reception by historians
In 2020, James R. Grossman, the executive director of the American Historical Association, said that "The choices vary from odd to probably inappropriate to provocative" and suggested that the proposal was an attempt by Trump "to seize on a cultural conflict to distract from other issues" during an election season, as suggested by the short (60-day) timetable that Trump set forth in his order.[10] Historian Karen Cox described the executive order about the proposed monument as "random" and said that "Nothing about this suggests it's thoughtful".[10] Historian Adam Domby noted that the initial proposal did not include Native Americans, although Red Cloud, Chief Joseph, Sacagawea, Chief Sitting Bull, Tecumseh, and Jim Thorpe have since been selected. Domby also noted that the initial proposal included General George Patton but omitted President Dwight D. Eisenhower, although both generals are now slated for inclusion as are other historical military figures.[10] Several of the chosen statues were criticized for their stances on race, and criticism was made that the garden featured more conservative intellectuals than left-leaning ones.[11]
Initial reception by sculptors
In 2025, Politico reported that sculptors who saw the design specifications for Trump's garden described it as unrealistic, and that "America doesn't have enough quality sculptors or museum-caliber foundries to make this happen on Trump's speedy timeline". Daniel Kunitz, editor of Sculpture magazine, called the proposal "completely unworkable". The report stated that most fine-arts foundries in the United States are booked six to 18 months in advance, and that sculpture experts mused the only place that could create the desired sculptures on the timetable requested was in China. It further quoted fine arts experts who stated that such collaborations ran the risk of having work be "slapdash and uninspired", and quoted one sculpture expert who likened the attempt to "a government-run version of Madame Tussaud's wax museum". The report questioned who would apply for the $200,000 commission, noting both low opinion of Trump in the artistic community and noting that the money offered was low after the costs of base casting and material were applied, which were requested to be granite, bronze, copper, or brass.[11]
Proposed statues
Names marked with an asterisk (*) were included in the original executive order.[27]
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