Another day, another lawsuit against Trump’s tacky DC projects
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/6/17/800056543/courts/another-lawsuit-trump-tacky-dc-projects/
Another day, another lawsuit against Trump’s tacky DC projects
President Donald Trump’s hideously tacky projects keep getting shut down.
This time, it’s his proposed statue garden, which is low-key one of the ugliest things Trump is doing—albeit on a much smaller scale than tearing the entire East Wing down or wrecking the reflecting pool.
Trump wants to erect 250 statues in his “National Garden of American Heroes,” but several plaintiffs—including multiple organizations dedicated to cultural preservation of the capital—sued to stop him.
And it isn’t just about the statues. Trump is proposing to entirely redo West Potomac Park to add restaurants and an amphitheater. In other words, he wants to turn it into some sort of private event space where he gets to build whatever he wants.
And the proposed American “heroes”? The list honestly seems to have been generated by ChatGPT, particularly because there are some folks on the list who are very much not American.
Ingrid Bergman? Alfred Hitchcock? It’s a mishmash of famous entertainers, athletes, a few Supreme Court justices, and some people that the administration is actively working to erase from history, like Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks.
Some presidents are included, but not all. Ronald Reagan, John F. Kennedy, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt made the cut, but not George H. W. Bush, Lyndon B. Johnson, or Gerald Ford.
Related | Trump’s giant tacky arch could ruin DC’s skyline sooner than you think
You won’t be surprised to learn that there are laws specifically prohibiting what Trump is trying to do. In 1897, Congress mandated that this land “be forever held and used as a park for the recreation and pleasure of the people.”
Congress also passed the Commemorative Works Act in 1986, which set statutory requirements to “ensure the continued public use and enjoyment of open space in the District of Columbia” and that any future works “are appropriately designed, constructed, and located [and] reflect a consensus of the lasting national significance of the subjects involved.”
There is no wiggle room here. The CWA explicitly defines statues as commemorative work, period.
Congress also amended the CWA in 2003 to create the reserve, extending from the U.S. Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial and from the White House to the Jefferson Memorial. They also prohibited any new commemorative works in that space because it was a “substantially completed work of art.”
Of course, Trump isn’t following any required procedures or acknowledging that a law literally forbids him from throwing up his ugly statues. Instead, he’s taking secret, anonymous bribes—er, “donations”—and refusing to consult with Congress.
The administration won’t address the fact that this is wildly illegal either. Instead, we get an Interior Department spokesperson complaining that “it is beyond comprehension why anyone would sue over an exhibition that celebrates American greatness by highlighting some of the most pivotal figures in our nation’s history.”
How dare anyone follow the law when Trump wants his little statues, right?
Look, if this is all so terrific, celebratory, American, and great, why not just go to Congress and get a law passed to allow a new commemorative work?
Trump wants to put his stamp on everything in Washington, but all he’s doing is making it barren and unsightly.
And one day, we’re going to tear it all down.
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