ALEXANDER Hamilton, Jackie Robinson, and Antonin Scalia are among the honorees named to President Donald Trump’s “National Garden of American Heroes.”
Speaking in a July 4th address at Mount Rushmore, Trump announced he was signing an executive order for a new national monument featuring “statues of great Americans.”
The White House issued an executive order on Friday to build the National Garden of American Heroes – which Trump called a “vast outdoor park that will feature the statues of the greatest Americans to ever live.”
The new order comes after recent protesters across the United States demolished statues of mainly Confederate leaders.
It also come George Floyd’s controversial Minneapolis death and the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that followed.
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 should be composed of statues, including statues of 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.”
Trump made the announcement at the Fourth of July celebration at Mount Rushmore.
Earlier this week, Democrats accused Trump of “glorifying white supremacy” for continuing with the event.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) official Twitter account, wrote to social media on Tuesday that Trump attending an event at the iconic memorial – which features George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln – was disrespectful to Native Americans.
Native Americans had protested Trump’s trip, saying they view the monument as a desecration of land violently stolen from them and used to pay homage to leaders hostile to Indigenous people.
“Mount Rushmore is a symbol of white supremacy, of structural racism that’s still alive and well in society today,” Nick Tilsen, a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe and the president of a local activist organization called NDN Collective, has said.
“It’s an injustice to actively steal Indigenous people’s land, then carve the white faces of the colonizers who committed genocide.”
Mount Rushmore is a 79-year-old stone monument located in South Dakota’s Black Hills, and the event on July 3 was the first fireworks display at the site since 2009.
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.”
“Make no mistake, this left wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American revolution,” Trump said.
“Our children are taught in school to hate their own country.
“Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children.
“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.”
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.”
“This monument will never be desecrated,” he said. “These heroes will never be disgraced. Their legacy will never, ever be destroyed.”
One of the creators of Mount Rushmore, Gutzon Borglum, said these four presidents were chosen as “they represented the most important events in the history of the United States.”
The faces were carved into the mountain with dynamite and drills and were chosen by for their leadership during four phases of American development.
Washington led the birth of the US, Jefferson sparked its westward expansion, Lincoln preserved the union and emancipated slaves, and Roosevelt championed industrial innovation.
According to Mount Rushmore historian and writer Tom Griffith, Borglum was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
