National Endowment for the Humanities union says Trump is using the agency “as a propaganda pipeline.”
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After just cutting more than 1,000 grants, the National Endowment for the Humanities is recruiting artists to create 250 statues for President Donald Trump’s Garden of Heroes idea in time for the country’s 250th Anniversary next year.
The grant application opened Thursday and allows for up to $600,000 per artist to create three statues of American heroes Trump identified in an executive order during his first term. Each statue can cost up $200,000, must be life-sized and made of marble, granite, bronze, copper, or brass.
“The purpose of this program is to celebrate key moments in American history and honor the statesmen, visionaries, and innovators who shaped the nation through the creation of statues in their likeness,” according to the grant notice. The sculptures are supposed to be in place by the 250th anniversary of America’s independence from Britain, on July 4, 2026, but a location for the garden has not been publicized.
The order lists traditional heroes like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Sacagawea, Neil Armstrong, Martin Luther King Jr., and John F. Kennedy, as well as arts, culture and sports figures including Kobe Bryant, Johnny Cash, Julia Child, Elia Kazan and conservative intellectuals and activists.
Cancelled grants
At least some of the $30 million the agency has set aside for the statues is expected to come from grants for ongoing projects that were cancelled in early April after Trump’s second term began.
The agency eliminated more than 85% of its existing grants, which support museums, historical sites and scholarly and community projects across the country, as well as state-level humanities programs in all 50 states. It also sent an estimated 70% of its staff home on administrative leave as it works to downsize the agency’s roughly 170-person staff.
A spokesperson for NEH did not return a request for more information. According to the grant notice on the NEH website, applicants can select 10 to 20 figures from those listed in the 2021 executive order creating the garden. NEH will determine which statues are to be created by each award recipient.
Former President Joe Biden rescinded the order when he took office. Trump issued a new order when he regained office in 2025.
Union says the agency is ‘being used as a propaganda pipeline’
AFGE Local 3403, a branch of the American Federation of Government Employees that represents NEH employees said in a statement it is horrified the agency is “being used as a propaganda pipeline to promote the president’s brand of patriotism instead of preserving and celebrating the full American experience.”
“It is absurd to think that grant dollars that were being used to do things like publish President George Washington’s writings, restore Mark Twain’s artifacts, and support civics education are instead being directed to commission statues,” the union said. “While NEH staff have the expertise to help provide historic context about these individuals and their impact, commissioning the artworks falls well outside of the agency’s purview. History is not something that can be set in stone.”