Trump issues executive order to rebuild non-Confederate toppled statues for new ‘National Garden of American Heroes’
PRESIDENT Donald Trump has issued an executive order to rebuild non-Confederate toppled statues for the new “National Garden of American Heroes.” The Executive Order on Building and Rebuilding Monuments to American Heroes was issued by the White House on July 3. It comes in the aftermath of George Floyd’s controversial Minneapolis death and the Black […]
PRESIDENT Donald Trump has issued an executive order to rebuild non-Confederate toppled statues for the new “National Garden of American Heroes.”
The Executive Order on Building and Rebuilding Monuments to American Heroes was issued by the White House on July 3.
It comes in the aftermath of George Floyd’s controversial Minneapolis death and the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that followed across the United States – and resulted in statues of mainly Confederate leaders being demolished.
“America owes its present greatness to its past sacrifices. Because the past is always at risk of being forgotten, monuments will always be needed to honor those who came before. Since the time of our founding, Americans have raised monuments to our greatest citizens,” the order states.
“To destroy a monument is to desecrate our common inheritance. In recent weeks, in the midst of protests across America, many monuments have been vandalized or destroyed.”
Some monuments which have been “vandalized, destroyed, or removed” were of Christopher Columbus, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Francis Scott Key, and Ulysses S. Grant.
On Saturday evening, protesters in Maryland had pulled down a statue of Columbus and thrown it into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor – prompting the President to brand them as “terrorists.”
The order continued: “These statues are not ours alone, to be discarded at the whim of those inflamed by fashionable political passions; they belong to generations that have come before us and to generations yet unborn.
“My Administration will not abide an assault on our collective national memory.
“In the face of such acts of destruction, it is our responsibility as Americans to stand strong against this violence, and to peacefully transmit our great national story to future generations through newly commissioned monuments to American heroes.”
In response to the widespread protests and destruction which took place across the US, the Trump administration ordered the creation of a task force for the rebuilding of monuments.
“In the face of such acts of destruction, it is our responsibility as Americans to stand strong against this violence, and to peacefully transmit our great national story to future generations through newly commissioned monuments to American heroes,” the order reads.
According to the order, it is the United States’ role to create a “statuary park named the National Garden of American Heroes.”
The National Garden will be composed of statues, including: “John Adams, Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton, Daniel Boone, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Henry Clay, Davy Crockett, Frederick Douglass, Amelia Earhart, Benjamin Franklin, Billy Graham, and Alexander Hamilton,” the White House explained.
The other notable figures named were: “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, and Orville and Wilbur Wright.”
The designated Task Force has been ordered to submit a report, including options on how and where to create the National Garden, to Trump within 60 days of the order.
According to the order, the National Garden should be open to the public before July 4, 2026 and “depict historically significant Americans… who have contributed positively to American throughout our history.”
“Statues should depict historically significant Americans, as that term is defined in section 7 of this order, who have contributed positively to America throughout our history.
Trump’s order said examples of statues include: “The Founding Fathers, those who fought for the abolition of slavery or participated in the underground railroad, heroes of the United States Armed Forces, recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor or Presidential Medal of Freedom, scientists and inventors, entrepreneurs, and civil rights leaders.”
Other examples named were: “Missionaries and religious leaders, pioneers and explorers, police officers and firefighters killed or injured in the line of duty, labor leaders, advocates for the poor and disadvantaged, opponents of national socialism or international socialism, former Presidents of the United States and other elected officials, judges and justices, astronauts, authors, intellectuals, artists, and teachers.”
Trump admitted that “none will have lived perfect lives, but all will be worth honoring, remembering, and studying.”
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Speaking Friday in South Dakota, Trump used his Independence Day celebration speech at Mount Rushmore to attack the toppling of historic statues by “angry mobs.”
As Trump spoke about the famous carved mountain backdrop behind him, he called Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and George Washington “the greatest Americans who ever lived.”