President Trump ordered the federal government late Friday to design and construct a statuary park honoring “American heroes,” his latest embrace of American heritage in opposition to what he has described as a revolutionary leftist movement that would “erase our values.”The White House issued the executive order shortly after Mr. Trump delivered a combatively political speech at Mount Rushmore denouncing recent acts by anti-racism protesters who destroyed or defaced national monuments. The order declares that he will “not abide an assault on our collective national memory.”Mr. Trump directed the creation of a task force, chaired by the secretary of the interior, to “expeditiously” open a “National Garden of American Heroes” at a site to be determined. His order specifies 31 Americans whom the garden must memorialize, a group of mostly white men that includes former presidents, pioneers and explorers, abolitionists and civil rights heroes. The lineup includes no equivalent contemporary liberals or Democrats. Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman and Jackie Robinson, the first African-American player in modern major league baseball.

Source: International New York Times July 04, 2020 20:03 UTC