President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One en route from Miami to Joint Base Andrews, Md., Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump is making plans to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence with an “extraordinary celebration” and a new national monument.
Trump is expected to sign an executive order Wednesday establishing a task force to coordinate and plan the event, according to a White House document shared with The Associated Press. The United States will celebrate its 250th anniversary — also known as the semiquincentennial — on July 4, 2026.
The order is also expected to revive Trump’s plans to build a “ National Garden of American Heroes “ with statues memorializing 250 historical figures and to commission artists for the first 100.
In a 2020 speech celebrating Independence Day at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, Trump first announced his plans to create what he said would be “a new monument to the giants of our past.” Trump himself curated the list of who was to be included — Davy Crockett, Billy Graham, Whitney Houston, Harriet Tubman and Antonin Scalia, among others.
No site was selected and the garden was never funded by Congress. President Joe Biden abolished the task force that Trump formed the create the monument.
Trump’s announcement came at a time of conservative backlash to efforts to take down statues dedicated to Confederate leaders and slave owners in the wake of George Floyd’s killing and subsequent protests.
Wednesday’s action is also expected to reinstate an executive order Trump signed in 2020 that was aimed at protecting monuments, memorials, and statues from destruction and vandalism. Trump had signed the order after police thwarted an attempt by protesters to pull down a statue of President Andrew Jackson in a park across from the White House.
That earlier order had called on the attorney general to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law any person or group responsible for destroying or vandalizing a monument, memorial or statue. It called for the maximum prosecution of anyone who incited violence and illegal activity, and threatened state and local law enforcement agencies with a loss if federal dollars if they failed to protect monuments.
“The National Garden will honor American heroism after dozens of monuments to Americans, including Presidents and Founding Fathers, have toppled or destroyed and never restored,” according to a White House document on the order shared with the AP.
Plans of the expected signing were first reported by Fox News.
During his 2024 campaign, Trump had talked about creating a yearlong “Salute to America 250” celebration. He said that on his first day back in office he would convene a task force that would be responsible for coordinating with state and local governments to plan festivities, beginning this Memorial Day.
He said he wanted the plan to include a year-long “Great American State Fair” in Iowa, featuring pavilions that would “showcase the glory of every state in the Union, promote pride in our history, and put forth innovative visions for America’s future.”
Trump also wanted to launch the “Patriot Games,” — sports contests featuring high school athletes from across the country that he said would “allow young Americans from every state to show off the best of American skill, sportsmanship, and competitive spirit.”
