Trump's push to restore American 'heroes' gets $30 million boost

Buried beneath his fights to tame the federal bureaucracy, deport illegal immigrants and rewrite environmental policy is President Trump’s quiet pursuit of a longtime passion: reviving traditional views of American 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 to revive the classical architecture of federal buildings.

All are issues Mr. Trump championed in his first term, but it was too late to make much of a difference.

He is hitting them early this time, and for good reason.

Mr. Trump wants the statue garden 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 have announced a $30 million contest to pay for statues to populate the garden.

The president said he wants 250 statues and mandated dozens of specific names, including Neil Armstrong, Julia Child, Muhammad Ali, Dolly Madison, the Rev. 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 contest.

No location for the garden has been selected, the NEH said.

The New York Times reported this month that the $30 million for the statues was released 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, particularly the garden.

Mr. Trump has emerged as a major defender of U.S. history, at least as it has traditionally been told.

That includes railing against the guerrilla urban planning of protesters who have torn down statues and demanded rewrites of plaques and memorials in recent years.

In an executive order in late March, Mr. Trump vowed to combat a “corrosive” revisionist history.

He directed the Interior Department to scour its holdings and identify 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.

In a statement to The Washington Times, the department said the National Park Service is “conducting a full review” of more than 400 sites to determine what needs 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.

Mr. Trump’s attempt at a national history lesson has received less than universal appreciation.

President Biden, soon after taking office in 2021, issued an executive order canceling Mr. Trump’s National Garden of American Heroes and Mr. Trump’s first attempt at rebuilding memorials torn down by Black Lives Matter protesters.

Michael McKenna, 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 in his push to change federal architecture, which is perhaps unsurprising for a man who made his fortune in real estate.

“It’s his effort to re-create 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.”