Preservationists See Trump's Garden of Heroes in Tidal Basin Plan

The National Park Service has quietly revised its plans for Washington, DC's Tidal Basin, and one leading preservationist reads the update as a land-clearing exercise for President Trump's National Garden of American Heroes, according to the Washington Post.

The revised plan targets West Potomac Park — the very ground Trump chose in May as his preferred site for the planned sculpture garden. Charles A. Birnbaum, founding president and CEO of the Cultural Landscape Foundation, told the Post the redesign appears purpose-built.

"The plan that we saw is really about making the space for the Garden of Heroes," Birnbaum said. He added a caveat: "the Garden of Heroes is not included in the plan," and the scheme "feels like a placeholder for something else that's going to be inserted." The Cultural Landscape Foundation, a DC-based nonprofit founded in 1998, educates the public about shared landscape heritage, flags threatened sites, and awards a biennial $100,000 landscape architecture prize.

What does the official plan actually contain?

According to a document published by the NPS, the redevelopment is meant to fix compacted soil, exposed tree roots, flooded sidewalks, and damage to the area's famous cherry trees. Legitimate problems, in other words. The basin's cherries have suffered for years under foot traffic and rising water.

The updated concept for the northwest zone is dominated by multi-use fields and an oval lawn. The initial plan had more features: a softball field, a bike path, a parking area, and a comfort station. Those have dropped away.

Birnbaum isn't alone in his suspicion. Thomas Luebke, secretary of the Commission of Fine Arts (the federal body that reviews design on Washington's public spaces), questioned the geometry during a public meeting.

"Ovals are not actually that great for athletic fields," Luebke said. "I think it strikes everybody here that there's something else going on."

An oval lawn, of course, would fit statues rather neatly.

What is the Garden of American Heroes?

The sculpture park is Trump's own conception. It would place a wide range of historical figures side by side — George Washington, Harriet Tubman, and Alex Trebek, the longtime host of TV game show Jeopardy!, among them. The statues would be sculpted in traditional materials at larger-than-life size. Trump has publicly promised "a beautiful complex." He has carried the idea for six years.

The project's legal and practical footing is shaky. Six preservationist organizations sued in June to stop it, arguing the garden cannot proceed without congressional approval. In April, CNN reported that not one sculpture would likely be standing by the targeted July 4, 2026, opening date — a projection that proved true.

The revised Tidal Basin plan, if it proceeds, could hand the stalled project what the lawsuits have so far denied it: prepared ground. Whether an oval lawn becomes a statue garden is now a question for the courts, Congress, and the NPS's own review process.