President Donald Trump has long fondly envisioned a sculpture garden dedicated to 250 American heroes. You know, people like George Washington, the country’s first president, and Alex Trebek, the longtime host of TV game show Jeopardy! Sculpted in traditional materials at larger than life size, these mythical sculptures have been on his mind for six years, and he has publicly promised “a beautiful complex.”
But now, the National Garden of American Heroes is less than three months out from its planned opening date of July 4, 2026, the 250th birthday of the United States, and it looks as though not even one sculpture will be standing by that time, according to unnamed sources in a CNN report.
According to CNN, foundries and artists nationwide who put their names forth to work on the sculptures are still awaiting a response from the Trump administration. The Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) and the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC), which would have to sign off on the project, have yet to receive plans from the administration, which hired Washington, DC architect Michael Franck to head up the project, which is reportedly tentatively to be sited in West Potomac Park.
Both bodies have been “stacked by Trump appointees,” says CNN, which notes that a recent meeting of the CFA did not discuss the project and that sources inside the NCPC indicate that they are unaware of any plans to discuss the project at an upcoming monthly meeting.
“It has not been formally reviewed,” a person familiar with planning efforts told CNN. “Based on my experience in prior approvals in the District, I don’t see how this could be in place in time by July.”
Trump first proposed the project in a speech in 2020, and issued an executive order stating that it should open before July 4 of 2026. But in 2021 president Joe Biden revoked the order; Trump reinstated it in 2026. He has pulled funding from bodies such as the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to support his favored initiatives, including the National Garden of American Heroes and a fleet of trucks carrying displays about American history. The NEH and NEA have jointly allotted $34 million for the project, according to documents reviewed by CNN.
In Trump’s omnibus budget bill in 2025, Trump appropriated $40 million from the Department of the Interior to support the sculpture garden.
Artists were meant to be informed if they won the gig by September 2025 and have their sculptures, which must be in a traditional style and in materials such as marble, granite, bronze, copper, or brass, by June 2026.
As the deadline approached, the organizers retrenched, calling for an initial group of 25 to 50 sculptures to be in place by July, with others added in future years, reports CNN, which was unable to find anyone who had been chosen for the garden.
“It is not clear,” according to the report, “if any artists have been chosen or if work has started on the sculptures.”
