Biden Cancels Trump’s ‘American Heroes Garden’ and its Statues of Billy Graham, Others

By admin On Jun 11, 2021

Biden Cancels Trump’s ‘American Heroes Garden’ and its Statues of Billy Graham, Others

With no comment, President Biden in recent days canceled a proposed “National Garden of American Heroes” that had been planned by President Trump and would have included statues of dozens of figures from history, including Billy Graham and Harriet Tubman.

Trump issued two executive orders to establish the garden, one in July 2020 and another in January 2021.

But last month, Biden signed an executive order of his own revoking multiple executive orders by Trump, including both executive orders related to the heroes garden. Biden’s executive order did not list his reason for canceling the monument.

The National Garden of American Heroes would have been constructed outdoors at a yet-to-be-determined site. In his January executive order, Trump said a task force had completed the first phase of the project and was “prepared to move forward.”

Trump called it “America’s answer to this reckless attempt to erase our heroes, values, and entire way of life.”

“In the peace and harmony of this vast outdoor park, visitors will come and learn the amazing stories of some of the greatest Americans who have ever lived,” Trump said in the executive order. “The National Garden will feature a roll call of heroes who deserve honor, recognition, and lasting tribute because of the battles they won, the ideas they championed, the diseases they cured, the lives they saved, the heights they achieved, and the hope they passed down to all of us – that united as one American people trusting in God, there is no challenge that cannot be overcome and no dream that is beyond our reach.”

Trump’s executive order included names of dozens of individuals who would been included in the park, including Billy Graham, John Adams, Susan B. Anthony, Aretha Franklin, Clara Barton, Frederick Douglass, Amelia Earhart, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jackie Robinson, Harriet Tubman, Henry Clay and Davy Crockett.

“Each individual has been chosen for embodying the American spirit of daring and defiance, excellence and adventure, courage and confidence, loyalty and love,” Trump’s executive order said. “Astounding the world by the sheer power of their example, each one of them has contributed indispensably to America’s noble history, the best chapters of which are still to come.”

Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

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