PresidentDonald Trump's project to build the "National Garden of American Heroes" has been awarded $40 million, thanks to the megabill dubbed the "Big Beautiful Bill." In February, Trump announced he had ordered the creation of a new national park to display statues of "the greatest Americans who ever lived." Trump signed a similar executive order in 2020, which former PresidentJoe Bidenrevoked the following year. The order reviving the project was part of a larger initiative preparing for the 250th anniversary of America's independence, and the Trump administration appears to want the garden completed by July 2026. TheNational Endowment for the Humanitiesput out a call for people to apply for grants to create the statues to be completed between October and July. They would be assigned historic figures to depict in their statues by the NEH. So who might be memorialized in these statues? Here is what we know: Theoriginal ordersuggested the statues should depict "historically significant Americans" such as scientists, civil rights leaders, police officers, labor leaders, judges, authors and teachers, to name a few. "None will have lived perfect lives, but all will be worth honoring, remembering, and studying," the order from 2020 states. In 2021, days before leaving office, Trump signed an order expanding the list of people to nearly 200. Those include: John Adams Susan B. Anthony Clara Barton Daniel Boone Joshua Chamberlain Henry Clay Davy Crockett Frederick Douglass Amelia Earhart Benjamin Franklin Billy Graham Alexander Hamilton Thomas Jefferson Martin Luther King Jr. Abraham Lincoln Douglas MacArthur Dolley Madison James Madison Christa McAuliffe Audie Murphy George S. Patton Jr. Ronald Reagan Jackie Robinson Betsy Ross Antonin Scalia Harriet Beecher Stowe Harriet Tubman Booker T. Washington George Washington Orville and Wilbur Wright Elvis Presley Whitney Houston Helen Keller Trump's reinstated order calls on the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy to recommend other potential figures to include in the garden and bring the total number of people honored to 250. The White House did not provide an update on the final list of people who would be included. According to the NEH call for applications, the statues must be life-sized and made of marble, granite, bronze, copper or brass. The location still has yet to be determined. The 2020 order specified that the park will be "on a site of natural beauty," near at least one population hub and avoid disrupting the local community. Trump first announced the plans in front of Mount Rushmore, and some people in South Dakota seem eager to bring the statue garden to the state as well. A mining company that owns land near Mount Rushmore offered some of that land for Trump's garden. "I would like to offer those same Black Hills as the perfect location for this garden,"South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhodensaid in a March 18 letter to Trump. "In fact, we have plot of land available in sight of Mount Rushmore that would be ideal for this fantastic effort." Contributing: Jason Lalljee, Maureen Groppe, Chris Mueller,USA TODAY Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at kcrowley@gannett.com. Follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley or Bluesky at @kinseycrowley.bsky.social. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Who will be in the National Garden of American Heroes? What we know
