Americans could soon get the chance to walk by life-size statues of luminaries, including Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Muhammad Ali, after President Donald Trump’s “National Garden of American Heroes” was greenlit. Packed into the president’s so-called “big, beautiful bill” that was passed earlier this month is a 2025 executive order to build the garden to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence . Trump originally proposed the garden in January 2021 as confederate statues were being torn down across the country .
The initial executive order states: “The National Garden is America’s answer to this reckless attempt to erase our heroes, values, and entire way of life.” The newly passed legislation carves out $40 million to build the garden filled with statues of deceased historical figures — in either marble, granite, bronze, copper, or brass , according to the National Endowment for the Humanities. The 2021 executive order laid out nearly 250 names, including TV fixtures Julia Child and Alex Trebek, literary icons Emily Dickinson and Edgar Allen Poe, pioneers Amelia Earhart and Sally Ride, sports stars Kobe Bryant and Jackie Robinson, scientists Albert Einstein and Jonas Salk, performers Whitney Houston and Humphrey Bogart, and former presidents Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan.
A White House spokesperson confirmed to The Independent the White House is planning on using the list from the 2021 executive order when considering which statues will b.