Trump unveils historic names to become statues in National Garden: Washington, MLK, Kobe Bryant, others

Throughout his presidency, Trump has always placed America first.

Even in his final days, he found a way to pay tribute to our nation’s heroes.

In one of his final executive orders before leaving office, President Trump updated the progress on statues to be built for the National Garden of American Heroes.

The list of figures who will be recognized with a statue was released Monday after months of attacks on our nation’s monuments in several major cities, BizPacReview reports.

“The chronicles of our history show that America is a land of heroes. As I announced during my address at Mount Rushmore, the gates of a beautiful new garden will soon open to the public where the legends of America’s past will be remembered,” Trump said in his executive order.

“Across this Nation, belief in the greatness and goodness of America has come under attack in recent months and years by a dangerous anti-American extremism that seeks to dismantle our country’s history, institutions, and very identity,” he added.

“The heroes of 1776 have been desecrated, with statues of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin vandalized and toppled. The dead who gave their lives to end slavery and save the Union during the Civil War have been dishonored, with monuments to Abraham Lincoln, Hans Christian Heg, and the courageous 54th Regiment left damaged and disfigured,” Trump noted.

“The brave warriors who saved freedom from Nazi fascism have been disgraced with a memorial to World War II veterans defaced with the hammer and sickle of Soviet Communism,” he said.

“The National Garden is America’s answer to this reckless attempt to erase our heroes, values, and entire way of life. On its grounds, the devastation and discord of the moment will be overcome with abiding love of country and lasting patriotism,” he added.

“This is the American way. When the forces of anti-Americanism have sought to burn, tear down, and destroy, patriots have built, rebuilt and lifted up. That is our history,” he urged. “In keeping with this tradition, America is responding to the tragic toppling of monuments to our founding generation and the giants of our past by commencing a new national project for their restoration, veneration, and celebration.”

Executive Order on Building the National Garden of American Heroes:https://t.co/Tzl8emIR8O pic.twitter.com/1gLcNjB8B1

— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) January 18, 2021

The list of heroes includes America’s Founders, such as Washington, Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton and John Adams. Other figures include Betsy Ross, Patrick Henry, Francis Scott Key, Paul Revere and more.

Christopher Columbus, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass will also be honored, as will Civil Rights leaders like Booker T. Washington, Martin Luther King Jr., and Rosa Parks.

The garden will also include American artists, investors, explorers and sports figures – such as the late Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant – film starts, military members and American presidents.

“In short, each individual has been chosen for embodying the American spirit of daring and defiance, excellence and adventure, courage and confidence, loyalty and love,” Trump said. “Astounding the world by 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.”