President Trump has recently issued an executive order for the creation of a “National Garden of American Heroes.” This will commemorate prominent Americans with statues and memorials. President Trump made this announcement during the speech at Mount Rushmore the Friday before Fourth of July weekend in which he railed against liberal activists who have been calling for the removal of American statues and monuments since George Floyd’s death.
“To destroy a monument is to desecrate our common inheritance. 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,” the order says.
The order is to begin work on the project with funding from the Department of the Interior and commission the Interagency Task Force for Building and Rebuilding Monuments to American Heroes. It calls statues silent teachers in solid form of stone and metal that calls forth on gratifying the accomplishments and sacrifices of our exceptional fellow citizens who placed their lives in the service of our nation. This is to respect the past, dignify the present, and inspire the future and those to come.
The National Garden is composed of statues, including John Adams, Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Tubman, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Amelia Earhart, and many more. The garden is expected to be open to the public no later than July 4, 2026. The location for the park is still to be determined.
These statues and monuments have been the target by the “cancel culture” as racial tensions have boiled over in recent weeks. The executive order signed also punishes those who intend to vandalize or destroy any monuments, memories and statues. The punishments are up to 10 years in prison. This order not only provides the protection of federal monuments, memorials, statues, or property, but also protects the state and local public officials’ abdication of their law enforcement responsibilities from violent assaults.
In the midst of these attacks, many state and local governments have lost the ability to distinguish between the lawful exercise of rights to free speech and assembly and unvarnished vandalism. They have allowed mob rule and the violation of our laws, privileging the violent impulses of the protesters to the law-abiding citizens.
Between the monument protection order and the garden proposal, America seems to be moving in the right direction. Putting the monuments together in a “Hall of Fame” style setting is the perfect idea for being able to protect all of the national monuments in one place…and away from all of these “woke” left-wing activists.
