Who'll be in Trump's hero garden? There are a few surprises.

Washington Post

15-07-2025

The list of nearly 250 includes the famous, the obscure and, in some cases, the intentionally controversial.
Perhaps in a few years, you'll be able to stroll through a garden — location TBA — past life-size statues of 250 mostly famous Americans and American-adjacent folks, from George Washington and Rosa Parks to Dr. Seuss, Christopher Columbus, Muhammad Ali and Elvis.
A tiny chunk of the big bill that President Donald Trump signed into law on July 4 allots $40 million to create a 'National Garden of American Heroes,' a park Trump first proposed during the racial justice protests of 2020, when many Confederate and other monuments nationwide were being toppled.
So if the garden is a go, who are the heroes?
A 2021 executive order listed 244 mostly household names, all deceased, who embodied 'the American spirit of daring and defiance, excellence and adventure, courage and confidence, loyalty and love.'
The list comes with one giant caveat: These people were chosen four years before Trump's 'anti-DEI' scrubbing of references to some notable people, including Black, Hispanic and female veterans, from federal spaces. A White House spokesperson said in an email last week that the final list of honorees remains under consideration.
Astronauts, explorers and pioneers Hover on a bubble to explore the data
Hover on a bubble to explore the data
1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 Daniel Boone Daniel Boone Amelia Earhart Amelia Earhart Sally Ride Sally Ride
The list was compiled by members of a task force who asked for input from state and local officials. Another executive order, in January of this year, states that a few names will be added by the assistant to the president for domestic policy, a role held by Vince Haley, for a total of 250.
Story continues below advertisement
Advertisement
Most were (relatively) recent, some were controversial
Birth dates of people on the list range from the mid-1400s to the late 1900s. About half were in their prime during the 20th century.
Astronauts, explorers and pioneers
1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 Columbus b. 1451 Daniel Boone Daniel Boone Amelia Earhart Amelia Earhart Sally Ride Sally Ride
Because Trump thought some protesters went too far in removing statues, he wanted the garden to include significant historical figures despite their flaws.
The earliest person on the list is Columbus, the celebrated Italian explorer who also brutalized Native people in the Caribbean. The most recent is NBA superstar and 'girl dad' Kobe Bryant, who died at 41 with his daughter in a helicopter crash on his way to coach her basketball team. Seventeen years earlier, he had grappled with a sexual assault allegation.
TV, movie, music and sports figures
1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 Kobe Bryant Kobe Bryant Billie Holiday Billie Holiday
In between are scores of people who fought for liberty, some of whom owned enslaved people, and scores more who changed the world in positive ways, but not necessarily for everybody.
Story continues below advertisement
Advertisement
A few immigrants, a lot of New Yorkers
More than 1 in 10 people on the list were born in New York, not including crooner Frank Sinatra, from nearby Hoboken, New Jersey, who sang Trump's favorite version of 'My Way.' They include poet Walt Whitman, Yankees slugger Lou Gehrig and polio vaccine creator Jonas Salk.
At least nine states have no homegrown 'heroes' — 10, if you believe President Andrew Jackson was born north of the border between the Carolinas. (No one is sure.)
D.C. has representation, though: jazz great Duke Ellington and Tuskegee Airmen leader Benjamin O. Davis Jr. Puerto Rico, too, with baseball Hall of Famer and humanitarian Roberto Clemente.
Inventors, scientists and pioneers in medicine
1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 Luis Walter Alvarez Luis Walter Alvarez Samuel Morse Samuel Morse
Thirty-seven people on the list were born abroad, in 20 countries, including longtime 'Jeopardy' host Alex Trebek (Canada for 200, Ken!) and theoretical physicist Albert Einstein (Germany).
Not all immigrated intentionally. Phillis Wheatley, who in 1773 became the first African American woman to publish a book of poems, was kidnapped as a young child from West Africa and sold into slavery in Boston. She was still enslaved when her book was published.
Rs and Ds, famous and not-so-famous
The garden's organizing structure is yet to be determined, so we gave it a shot, slotting each person into a group based on what they were best known for to see what patterns emerged. Plenty of people would fit into more than one of these categories.
Artists, architects and literary figures
1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 John James Audubon John James Audubon Harper Lee Harper Lee Booker T. Washington Booker T. Washington
The list leans ideologically conservative, but not overwhelmingly so.
Thought leaders such as author Russell Kirk ('The Conservative Mind') and William F. Buckley (longtime host of the public affairs talk show 'Firing Line') are included, along with conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. But so is Scalia's liberal 'best buddy' (her words), Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Thurgood Marshall, the first African American on the court.
The 17 presidents on the list are split fairly evenly, party-wise: eight Republicans, five Democrats, two Democratic-Republicans (the precursor to the Democrats), a Federalist (John Adams) and George Washington, the only president who had no party affiliation.
Presidents
1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan George Washington George Washington
Civil rights activists Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King are among four married couples, along with actors Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Two first ladies made it in addition to their husbands: Dolley Madison, who largely defined the role, and Eleanor Roosevelt, who turned it into a platform for advocacy.
Activists
1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 Medgar Evers Medgar Evers Sojourner Truth Sojourner Truth
Some names are less well known than their actions, such as the Black women mathematicians known as 'human computers' at NASA who calculated orbital trajectories during the space race in the 1960s. Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan were portrayed in the 2016 movie 'Hidden Figures.'
At least a dozen are remembered mostly for one heroic act.
One is Todd Beamer, who was heard over an Airfone saying a final 'Let's roll' before apparently leading fellow passengers to storm the cockpit of the hijacked Flight 93 before it could reach its D.C. target on Sept. 11, 2001.
The 'Four Chaplains' shepherded terrified young soldiers toward the lifeboats on a sinking Army transport ship in 1943, then handed out life vests — including their own. Survivors saw Alexander D. Goode, John P. Washington, Clark V. Poling and George L. Fox praying hand-in-hand on the deck as the SS Dorchester went down.
Explore each category
Select a category...
1600 1700 1800 1900 2000
A lot of White men, and a lot of firsts
A couple dozen people on the list achieved some kind of breakthrough for a person of their race, gender or — in the case of Neil Armstrong — species.
Armstrong, the first human to walk on the moon, is one of the garden's five astronauts, along with teacher Christa McAuliffe, who died when the space shuttle Challenger exploded.
Breakdown by race or ethnicity and gender
Breakdown by race or
ethnicity and gender
Male
Female
White
155
35
Sally
Ride
Neil
Armstrong
Black
19
15
Thurgood
Marshall
Native
American
3
7
Maria
Tallchief
Hispanic
7
Asian
2
Note: At least one person's ancestry is debated.
Breakdown by race or ethnicity and gender
Male
Female
Native
White
Hispanic
Black
Asian
American
155
7
19
2
7
Thurgood
Marshall
Neil
Armstrong
35
15
3
Maria
Tallchief
Sally
Ride
Note: At least one person's ancestry is debated.
Montana's Jeannette Rankin was the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress, and it happened in 1916, about four years before women were guaranteed the right to vote.
Maria Mitchell was the first American scientist to discover a comet.
Civil War flag-bearer Joseph De Castro was the first Hispanic American to receive the Medal of Honor, the military's highest award for valor in combat. Maria Tallchief was the first Native American prima ballerina.
Barbara Jordan of Texas, whose powerful speech to the House Judiciary Committee in July 1974 helped turn the country against Richard M. Nixon, was the first African American woman in the 20th century to be elected to Congress from the South.
Story continues below advertisement
Advertisement
Five Catholic saints are on the list, including Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American-born person to be canonized, in 1975.
However, there is not a single female athlete, unless you count sharpshooter Annie Oakley.
Regardless of who makes the final cut, federal statues typically take years to commission, design, cast and install. The park's opening was originally planned for July 4, 2026, the nation's 250th birthday, but a White House spokesperson said the new goal is sometime before the end of Trump's presidency in January 2029.
As of now, no site has been chosen.
However, South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden (R) is promoting a mining company's offer of land near Mount Rushmore, a plan that local Indigenous groups oppose. If the White House accepts the offer, maybe the four presidents depicted there can come off the garden's to-do list. Only 246 to go.
Illustrations by Lucy Naland/The Washington Post; Library of Congress; Mark J. Terrill/AP; iStock; Reed Saxon/AP; iStock; NASA/Bob Nye; NASA; iStock