Heritage Groups Sue Trump Over “Garden of American Heroes"
The National Mall is “not a personal sandbox for each President to renovate however he likes,” preservationists argue.
Six heritage preservation groups in Washington, DC, are suing the Trump administration over its plans to create a sculpture garden devoted to American “exceptionalism” on public land along the Potomac River. In a lawsuit filed against the Department of the Interior on Monday, June 15, organizations including the National Parks Conservation Association and the Cultural Landscape Foundation asked a federal judge to halt Trump's plan to build a 250-statue “National Garden of American Heroes.”The president's plan to install the monument in the National Park Service-controlled West Potomac Park, a part of the National Mall and Memorial Parks, was first announced in May.
The proposed construction is unlawful, the groups argue, because it violates several congressional restrictions on new developments and other preservation laws.“Congress has made clear that the National Mall is a ‘substantially completed work of civic art,’” the lawsuit reads, “not a personal sandbox for each President to renovate however he likes.”In this week's legal filings, the organizations raised concerns that renderings for the project appear to reduce “open grassy areas” and remove recreational sports fields from the public park, which houses the iconic Jefferson Memorial.
An aerial rendering of the National Garden of American Heroes posted by Trump in May (screenshot via Truth Social)Among the violations alleged in the lawsuit is the administration's apparent disregard for regulations governing the creation of new monuments in the nation's capital. Typically, a multi-step review and Congress's approval would be required for such a project, the filings state. Instead of moving through the approved channels, the groups claim the president is accelerating the project consistent with the “administration’s track record of beginning overhauls of historic and civic spaces in the nation’s capital without warning.”
Trump announced his plans to build the bizarre sculpture garden during his first presidentia
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