Buried beneath his fights to tame the federal bureaucracy, deport illegal immigrants and rewrite environmental policy, President Trump is quietly pursuing a long-time passion of his: reviving traditional views of America’s history and its heroes.
Executive orders have sent officials scrambling to restore monuments torn down by Black Lives Matter protests, to create a sculpture garden celebrating “American heroes” — and even to revive the classical architecture of federal buildings.
They’re all issues Mr. Trump championed in his first term but too late to make much of a difference.
This time around he’s hitting them early — and for good reason.
Mr. Trump wants the statue garden to be ready for next year’s 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts just announced a $30 million contest to pay for statutes to populate the garden.
The president says he wants 250 statues in all, and he’s already mandated dozens of specific names appear, ranging from Neil Armstrong, Julia Child and Muhammad Ali to Dolly Madison, Martin Luther King Jr. and Ronald Reagan.
“The garden will provide the public with an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of how the lives and accomplishments of these individuals have shaped our history and culture,” acting NEH Chairman Michael McDonald said in announcing the new contest for the statues.
No location for the garden has been selected, the NEH said.
The New York Times reported earlier this month that the $30 million for the statues was freed up after the NEH canceled more than 85% of its existing grants. The paper said board members were told the agency was going all-in to support the Trump agenda, with the garden being a particular focus.
More broadly, Mr. Trump has emerged as a major defender of U.S. history, at least as it’s traditionally been told.
That includes railing against the guerrilla urban planning by protesters who in recent years have torn down statutes and demanding rewrites of plaques and memorials.
Mr. Trump, in an executive order in late March, said that was part of a “corrosive” revisionist history that he vowed to combat.
He directed the Interior Department to scour its holdings and identify any places where monuments, statues or markers were altered since 2020 to adopt what the president called a “false reconstruction of American history.” Mr. Trump said he wants the previous monuments and markers restored.
The department, in a statement to The Washington Times, said the National Park Service is “conducting a full review” at more than 400 sites to see what may need to be changed.
“We’re doing a thorough, park-by-park review to protect the legacy of our nation’s heroes and historic figures. This process takes time, but make no mistake — we are committed to upholding the values and history that make this country great,” said spokesperson Elizabeth Peace.
There has been less than universal appreciation for Mr. Trump’s attempt at a national history lesson.
President Joseph R. Biden, soon after taking office in 2021, issued his own executive order canceling Mr. Trump’s heroes garden and Mr. Trump’s first attempt at rebuilding memorials torn down by BLM protesters.
Michael McKenna, who served as a senior aide in the first Trump White House, said irking Democrats is at least part of the attraction.
“It’s good for its own reasons, and if it annoys or otherwise harasses the bad guys then so much the better,” he said.
Mr. McKenna, who pens a column for The Times, said Mr. Trump has been particularly forceful on his push to change federal architecture, which is perhaps not surprising for a man who made his fortune in real estate.
“It’s his effort to recreate the era of the great American republic — the post-Civil War into World War II, all the great architecture from that,” Mr. McKenna said. “He associates that, as do most Americans, with the country’s greatest times. We’re literally making buildings great again.”
