Trump wants a sculpture garden for America’s 250th birthday. Sources say it’s unlikely even one statue will be ready.

By Sunlen Serfaty, CNN

(CNN) — It was envisioned as an expansive sculpture garden to honor America’s 250th birthday, with 250 statues of figures like Kobe Bryant, Elvis Pressley and Rosa Parks.

But with July 4th rapidly approaching, it’s unlikely that even one statue for President Donald Trump’s National Garden of American Heroes will be erected in time, sources familiar with the planning tell CNN.

Foundries and artists from across the country who applied to work on the massive, classical-style, sculptures – which would take months to build – haven’t heard from the Trump administration.

And plans for the garden haven’t been submitted to the Commission of Fine Arts or the National Capital Planning Commission — two government agencies whose approval is needed before it can be built.

“It has not been formally reviewed,” a person familiar with planning efforts said. “Based on my experience in prior approvals in the District, I don’t see how this could be in place in time by July.”

There has been some progress. The White House has zeroed in on West Potomac Park – a picturesque plot of land along the Potomac River popular for viewing Washington’s cherry blossoms – as the site for the garden, people familiar with the plans told CNN. And the administration has hired Michael Franck, a Washington, DC-based architect, to advise the project.

But the White House hasn’t formally announced the location, and sources say even that could change.

The project’s delays and twists are emblematic of Trump’s broader efforts to reshape the architecture and culture of the nation’s capital — including plans for an enormous White House ballroom that would replace the East Wing and a gold-accented triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery that some veterans groups oppose.

Some critics worry the sculpture garden will also be given a rubber stamp by the CFA or the NCPC, which have been stacked by Trump appointees.

One source familiar with construction approvals said they feared the sculpture garden “will be rammed through without approval” by Congress or the commissions, “as in the case of the White House ballroom.”

The garden was not discussed at Thursday’s CFA meeting, and sources on the NCPC say they were not aware of any plans on the schedule in upcoming monthly meeting to review the project.

The White House declined to comment.

Missed deadlines, and many fits and starts

The project is a personal endeavor for Trump that’s years in the making. It’s an idea first presented during a political speech the then-45th president made at the base of Mount Rushmore six years ago.

Trump announced that he decided to commission a monument “to the giants of our past” that would be a “vast outdoor park that will feature the statues of the greatest Americans to ever live.”

Shortly after, the White House released an executive order calling for the creation of the National Garden of American Heroes to open before July 4, 2026.

But the project has gone through many fits and starts.

A 2020 executive order was revoked by President Joe Biden in 2021, and then reissued days after Trump retook office.

In his second term, Trump has pulled money from the National Endowment for Humanities (NEH), National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services to fund cultural initiatives he backs, including the National Garden of Heroes.

The NEH and NEA have jointly set aside $34 million for the garden, with the NEA planning to contribute $17 million for the project, according to internal documents seen by CNN.

And last year, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” appropriated $40 million to the Department of Interior to establish and maintain the garden.

The NEH started soliciting artists in April of 2025 to apply to make the sculptures and artists were supposed to be informed if they were chosen in September 2025.

According to the timeline laid out by NEH, those chosen were to have completed their sculptures by June 2026.

When it became clear last summer that the project would not meet its initial goal of delivering 250 statues by this July, the goalposts were moved, with a new focus to have a much smaller number of statues – 25 to 50 – in place and completed for the unveiling in July. The rest of the 250 statues would be added in years ahead.

However, it is not clear if any artists have been chosen or if work has started on the sculptures.

CNN reached out to numerous foundries and artists who applied to work on the project and could not find anyone who had been engaged for work on the garden.

The statues are intended to be classical, lifelike and should be created from marble, granite, bronze, copper or brass and 1.2 times the historical height of the individual amounting to statues between 6 feet and 8 feet tall.

Besides Washington DC, Black Hills, South Dakota and Philadelphia were also considered as sites for the Garden, numerous sources have told CNN.

South Dakota had made the most forceful pitch. Governor Larry Rhoden had identified proposed land for the garden– a 40-acre area in sight of Mount Rushmore, and a long-established South Dakota family, the Lien family, had offered to donate a strip of land.

When asked in January by the New York Times about the garden, though, Trump said it would be “most likely right on the Potomac River” in Washington. “It’s going be a beautiful complex,” he added.

The-CNN-Wire
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