President Trump gave a rousing speech at Mt. Rushmore on Independence Day. In that speech, he announced an executive order creating a “National Garden of American Heroes,” in response to the woke outrage mobs and anarchists who have torn down statues in (Democrat-run) cities across America.
The executive order provides an initial list of honorees:
The executive order reads: “The National Garden should be composed of statues, including statues of John Adams, Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton, Daniel Boone, Joshua Lawrence 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, and Orville and Wilbur Wright.”
The order notes, “none will have lived perfect lives, but all will be worth honoring, remembering, and studying.”
The Department of the Interior hopes to have the park open by July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
This announcement touched off a lively discussion among my friends on Facebook. We came up with quite a list of folks who should also be included. Here I break them down by category. An asterisk denotes the names that were included in Trump’s executive order. Those without an asterisk were our suggestions.
Note: The list became HUGE. My sincere hope is that this park becomes enormous, and one of the most popular public destinations in America. The very idea fills me with patriotism.
Political heroes
- John Adams*
- Susan B. Anthony*
- Clara Barton*
- Daniel Boone*
- Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain*
- Henry Clay*
- Davy Crockett*
- Benjamin Franklin*
- Alexander Hamilton*
- Thomas Jefferson*
- Martin Luther King Jr.*
- Abraham Lincoln*
- James Madison*
- Ronald Reagan*
- Antonin Scalia*
- George Washington*
- Samuel Adams
- Calvin Coolidge
- Patrick Henry
- Paul Revere and William Dawes
- Theodore Roosevelt
- Clarence Thomas
Military heroes
- Douglas MacArthur*
- Audie Murphy*
- George S. Patton Jr.*
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Ulysses S. Grant
Cultural heroes
- Frederick Douglass*
- Amelia Earhart*
- Dolley Madison*
- Christa McAuliffe*
- Jackie Robinson*
- Betsy Ross*
- Harriet Beecher Stowe*
- Harriet Tubman*
- Booker T. Washington*
- Orville and Wilbur Wright*
- Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins, John Glenn, and Alan Shepard
- Mel Brooks
- Ray Charles
- Christopher Columbus
- Albert Einstein
- James Fenimore Cooper
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
- John Ford
- Aretha Franklin
- Earnest Hemingway
- Buck Henry
- Jim Henson
- Bob Hope
- Chief Joseph
- Paul Harvey
- Francis Scott Key
- Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
- Herman Melville
- Satchel Paige
- Rosa Parks
- Les Paul
- Elvis Presley
- Babe Ruth
- Sacagawea
- Frank Sinatra
- Squanto
- Sojurner Truth
- Henry David Thoreau
- Jim Thorpe
- Pat Tillman
- Mark Twain
- John Wayne
- Walt Whitman
Heroes of the free market
- Andrew Carnegie
- Thomas Edison
- Henry Ford
- Cornelius Vanderbilt
- George Westinghouse Jr.
Who else should we honor? Who in this list is more controversial than honorable? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Jeff Reynolds is the author of the book, “Behind the Curtain: Inside the Network of Progressive Billionaires and Their Campaign to Undermine Democracy,” available at www.WhoOwnsTheDems.com. Jeff hosts a podcast at anchor.fm/BehindTheCurtain. You can follow him on Twitter @ChargerJeff, and on Parler at @RealJeffReynolds.
