Donald Trump’s plans to build a “National Garden of American Heroes” are being challenged in court, in a new legal bid to stop his MAGA-fication of Washington D.C.
Trump, 80, has bragged about building the statue garden in West Potomac Park, a space near the National Mall that already includes the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.
It’s the latest in a series of projects the president has launched since returning to office. He’s also obsessed over plans to build a massive 250-foot arch just across the Potomac River, a White House ballroom, a promenade on the backside of the Lincoln Memorial, and he recently resurfaced the bottom of the Reflecting Pool in a shade of “American flag blue.”
But on Monday, a coalition of organizations, including the D.C. Preservation League, National Mall Coalition, National Parks Conservation Association, and The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), sued to prevent the proposed statue garden in West Potomac Park from proceeding without congressional authorization.
“The National Register-designated West Potomac Park is not available open space; it is part of the National Mall, which is one of the world’s finest achievements in civic landscape architecture, architecture, city planning, and art,” said Charles Birnbaum, TCLF’s president and CEO.
The coalition filed its 44-page lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday against the Department of the Interior, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the National Park Service and its acting director Jessica Bowron.
“The West Potomac Plan is unlawful. Congress has made clear that the National Mall is a “substantially completed work of civic art”—not a personal sandbox for each President to renovate however he likes," the lawsuit reads.
It accuses the Interior Department and NPS of failing to comply with multiple laws in their plan to move forward with the statue garden.
The coalition is asking the courts to halt the project until it is authorized by Congress.
“This disregard for legal requirements is part of the same playbook the administration has used to pursue other recent vanity projects,” the lawsuit reads.
“For more than a year, President Trump has endeavored to take over public spaces for himself and remake our nation’s capital in his own image, including by demolishing the historic East Wing of the White House; paving over the Rose Garden; and unlawfully emblazoning his name on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (until ordered otherwise by a court),” it continues.
The White House referred any questions about the lawsuit to the Interior Department.
“It is beyond comprehension why anyone would sue over an exhibition that celebrates American greatness by highlighting some of the most pivotal figures in our nation’s history. Either these people hate America or are suffering from a severe case of TDS,” a spokesperson from the Interior Department told the Daily Beast in a statement.
The department also accused employees of the National Parks Conservation Association of donating to Democratic political campaigns and of being partisan.
Trump announced plans to go forward with the “National Garden of American Heroes” in a Truth Social post on May 15 after he first revealed his intention to build it at the end of his first term.
The president claimed West Potomac Park was “totally BARREN” and argued he would make it “a World Class Masterpiece with elegant Landscaping, and adorned with Beautiful Statues.”
His post said there would be statues of “Founding Fathers, Military Warriors, Religious Leaders, Civil Rights Champions, World Class Athletes, Artists, Entertainers, and MORE” to honor America’s 250th anniversary.
The figures listed through the Freedom 250 task force include an eclectic group of figures ranging from President George Washington to inventor Thomas Edison and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, as well as entertainers such as Elvis Presley, Louis Armstrong, and John Wayne, Amelia Earhart, Edgar Allan Poe and Alex Trebek also made the list.
Federal officials have already set aside $40 million to establish and maintain the garden through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed last year, but the project appears likely to exceed that total.
A group called the National Garden of American Heroes Foundation has also been circulating renderings of the proposed project in its fundraising pitch to solicit private donations.
