Last July, as the Republican party decried and sensationalized calls to take down statues of problematic figures, then-President Donald Trump announced an executive order to build a "National Garden of American Heroes."
The plan was for a massive garden featuring statues of everyone from Annie Oakley to George Patton, with money for the project to come from the Department of the Interior.
Trump said in his announcement of the order:
"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 ... I am announcing the creation of a new monument to the giants of our past. I am signing an executive order to establish the National Guard of American heroes, a vast outdoor park that will feature the statues of the greatest Americans to ever live."
Months later, during his last days in office, Trump signed a second executive order expanding the number of proposed statues from around 30 to over 200.
The plans were met with skepticism from historians like Michael Beschloss, who said:
"No President of the United States or federal government has any business dictating us citizens who our historical heroes should be. This is not Stalin's Russia. Any American who loves democracy should make sure there is never some official, totalitarian-sounding 'National Garden of American Heroes,' with names forced upon us by the federal government."
This week, in an executive order undoing a flurry of Trump-era executive orders, President Joe Biden put the final nail in the coffin of the fanciful park, announcing that its plans had been "revoked."
While performative displays of patriotism play well among Trump's base, many Americans were happy to see the plans scrapped.
This is like erasing graffiti, one wall at a timehttps://twitter.com/Kevinliptakcnn/status/1393290328065593345\u00a0\u2026— Tom Nichols (@Tom Nichols) 1621022003
Good.https://twitter.com/Kevinliptakcnn/status/1393290328065593345\u00a0\u2026— Jo Chiaradia (@Jo Chiaradia) 1621025527
This was an easy call.https://twitter.com/Kevinliptakcnn/status/1393290328065593345\u00a0\u2026— Chip Pate (@Chip Pate) 1621023313
Every time @POTUS revokes, reverses, obliterates any of Trump's vengeful executive orders, inane/immoral policy decisions, an angel earns another wing. \nThank you, @POTUS, for fighting the good fight everyday, righting so many abhorrent wrongs of the corrupt Trump Admin........https://twitter.com/Kevinliptakcnn/status/1393290328065593345\u00a0\u2026— Emma (@Emma) 1621044827
But the news mostly led to further mockery of the fanciful project.
of all the DT things, this one was so totally random & weird I wish it was still going & they added like Mr. Clean, Batman and Liberace to ithttps://twitter.com/Kevinliptakcnn/status/1393290328065593345\u00a0\u2026— Bowiesongs (@Bowiesongs) 1621028218
Our dream of having a national tchotchke garden of Precious Moments\u00a9 figurines of the famous is over.https://twitter.com/Kevinliptakcnn/status/1393290328065593345\u00a0\u2026— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@Mrs. Betty Bowers) 1621025349
the Garden was to have featured statues of (among many many others) Antonin Scalia, Johnny Appleseed and Whitney Houstonhttps://twitter.com/Kevinliptakcnn/status/1393290328065593345\u00a0\u2026— Kevin Liptak (@Kevin Liptak) 1621021755
Should replace the garden with an arena for weekly fights between a human and animals. This is the one issue that united all Americans.https://twitter.com/Kevinliptakcnn/status/1393290328065593345\u00a0\u2026— Jonathan Chait (@Jonathan Chait) 1621024615
Other camps were predictably infuriated.
It doesn't get much more un-American than this, especially since Biden LOVES his executive orders. But, the saddest part is that I'm not shocked by the decision. \n\nI hate our government. I love American heroes.https://twitter.com/Kevinliptakcnn/status/1393290328065593345\u00a0\u2026— Nicole LaBont\u00e9 \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83d\ude3b\u2764\ud83e\udd0d\ud83d\udc99 (@Nicole LaBont\u00e9 \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83d\ude3b\u2764\ud83e\udd0d\ud83d\udc99) 1621035752
Trump does things out of Love and Biden does things out of HATE!https://twitter.com/Kevinliptakcnn/status/1393290328065593345\u00a0\u2026— \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\u2b50\ufe0fLouis Rossetti\u2b50\ufe0f\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\u2b50\ufe0fLouis Rossetti\u2b50\ufe0f\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1621091754
Biden hates America, especially its real hero\u2019s.https://twitter.com/Kevinliptakcnn/status/1393290328065593345\u00a0\u2026— Cicero (@Cicero) 1621096115
Trump has yet to comment on the matter.
