Could this sculpture garden become Trump’s Mount Rushmore?

The National Garden of Heroes is suppose to debut July 2026. Artists are scrambling, and critics are wary.

The visages of presidents past were looking down upon Donald Trump as he made a fiery speech excoriating his political foes for waging what he called a “merciless campaign” against the traditional values, heroes, and culture that underpin American greatness. It was 2020, and there, in the shadow of Mount Rushmore, the then-45th president vowed to commission a monument “to the giants of our past” that would “feature the statues of the greatest Americans to ever live.” From there, the concept of the “National Garden of American Heroes” was born – a sculpture park of 250 life-size artworks that would pay homage to the likes of Kobe Bryant, Amelia Earhart, Abraham Lincoln, Muhammad Ali, Christopher Columbus, and Sally Ride, among others, and would stand as new monuments in the American landscape. Two election cycles, one ballot-box defeat, and a rescinded – and then reinstituted – executive order later, artists are finally sketching 3D models, various localities are vying to be the site for the sculpture garden, and Congress is looking at setting aside millions of taxpayer dollars for the project. In his second term, Trump is pushing forward on plans for his great American sculpture garden. But the project – a personal endeavor of the president’s now five years in the making– is facing an uncertain future amid serious questions about the timeline, cost, location, and reception within the art community, threatening to sacrifice the quality and delivery of the project meant to debut at the nation’s big 250th anniversary celebration in July of 2026.