Donald Trump looked out over a totally barren field in West Potomac Park and saw a forest of marble and bronze. The President announced Friday on Truth Social that he has selected the site for his long-promised National Garden of American Heroes. The project aims to honor hundreds of figures from military, civil rights, and entertainment history in time for the 250th anniversary of the United States in 2026.

I am proud to announce the site of the NATIONAL GARDEN OF AMERICAN HEROES, Trump wrote while traveling back from a high-stakes visit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The President is not stopping at statues; he also mused on a new grand venue for ballrooms. He posted that the United States should have a venue comparable to the opulent halls he visited in Beijing.

This aesthetic blitz comes as the federal government enters a terminal crisis, according to recent history. While 240,000 DHS employees remain unpaid in a total payroll default, the administration is prioritizing a $1 billion luxury ballroom. For the inhabitants of the Hollow State, monumentalism has officially replaced the mundane obligation of paying the border guards.