Biden revokes Trump’s monuments ‘garden’ and executive order to punish statue vandals

Joe Biden has reversed a series of executive actions issued by Donald Trump, including his plans for a monuments “garden” and an order for federal law enforcement to prosecute people who damage monuments “to the fullest extent permitted”.

The former president issued his directives in the thick of his culture war grievances during antiracist demonstrations, though they did not amount to any policy changes or significant White House plans.

During a speech at the foot of Mount Rushmore on the 4 July 2020, Mr Trump proposed a sculpture garden to honour “great figures of America’s history” after issuing an executive order to protect monuments from protesters – who had largely targeted Confederate statues and Jim Crow-era relics to the Lost Cause – as uprisings across the US raged against police violence and systemic racism.

Mr Trump’s plans for a “National Garden of American Heroes” – which was to include statues of Amelia Earhart and Harriet Tubman as well as former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and evangelical leader Billy Graham – were never funded.

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