A National Garden of American Heroes was proposed by President Donald Trump in executive orders on July 3, 2020, and January 18, 2021, as a sculpture garden honoring "great figures of America's history".[1] Trump first announced the idea at an Independence Day event at Mount Rushmore in Keystone, South Dakota.[2][3][4] The sculpture garden idea was part of a series of executive orders issued by Trump in his final months in office to address conservative cultural grievances; the second of the two executive orders was issued two days before Trump's term expired.[4]Congress never appropriated funding for such a garden,[5] nor were concrete steps ever taken to construct such a site.[4] President Joe Biden revoked the executive orders relating to the garden in May 2021.[4][6]
Trump's vision for the garden included statues of notable Founding Fathers, activists, political figures, businesspeople, athletes, celebrities, and pop culture icons.[4][7][3][8][9] The premise of the proposal and the selection of statues to be erected was questioned by historians and scholars, who described it as random and scattershot.[10][11][12]