Trump’s Empty and Expensive Plan To Build 250 Statues of ‘American Heroes’
President Donald Trump has issued a flurry of executive orders since taking office three weeks ago, looking to reshape everything from global trade to women’s collegiate sports. One order Trump signed would prioritize the construction of 250 statues of historical figures and a garden in which to put them.
While this plan is less controversial than many of Trump’s other orders, it still represents an unnecessary and costly project.
“As we approach the [250th] anniversary…of our country’s founding, I have signed an executive order to resume the process of creating a new national park full of statues of the greatest Americans who ever lived,” Trump said last week at the National Prayer Breakfast.
Trump’s order, issued January 29, reinstated an order from his first term, titled “Building and Rebuilding Monuments to American Heroes.” It called for the creation of “a statuary park named the National Garden of American Heroes,” with statues of “historically significant Americans…who have contributed positively to America throughout our history.”
“Because the past is always at risk of being forgotten, monuments will always be needed to honor those who came before,” proclaimed the original order, signed in July 2020. “These statues are silent teachers in solid form of stone and metal. They preserve the memory of our American story and stir in us a spirit of responsibility for the chapters yet unwritten.”
“The National Garden will be built to reflect the awesome splendor of our country’s timeless exceptionalism,” Trump added in a second order, issued just two days before he left office in January 2021. “On its grounds, the devastation and discord of the moment will be overcome with abiding love of country and lasting patriotism. This is the Ameri
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