The National Endowment for the Humanities intends to redirect some of its funding to build President Trump’s proposed National Garden of American Heroes, as part of a reorientation toward the president’s priorities of celebrating patriotic history, according to three people who attended a meeting on Wednesday where the plans were discussed.
Last week, the agency, the main federal funder of the humanities, abruptly canceled more than 85 percent of its existing grants, which support museums, historical sites and scholarly and community projects across the country. The moves outraged supporters of the humanities, and stirred speculation about whether the agency would survive.
At the meeting on Wednesday, the agency’s acting chair, Michael McDonald, told its 24-member advisory council that the endowment would pivot to supporting the White House’s agenda, according to the three attendees, who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to describe a confidential meeting. In particular, they were told, the agency would support Mr. Trump’s planned patriotic sculpture garden and the broader celebration of the 250th anniversary of American independence on July 4, 2026.
Mr. Trump first proposed the sculpture garden in July 2020, shortly after delivering a fiery political speech at Mount Rushmore in which he decried the vandalism of statues across the country during racial justice protests set off by the murder of George Floyd.
“Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children,” Mr. Trump said.
In an executive order, he directed the construction of a National Garden of American Heroes, to be built “on a site of natural beauty that enables visitors to enjoy nature, walk among the statues, and be inspired to learn about great figures of America’s history.” All would be depicted in a “realistic” fashion, with no abstract or modernist sculpture allowed.
In a second order in January 2021, two days before leaving office, Mr. Trump provided a long list of potential honorees, from all fields and backgrounds. It included traditional heroes like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Sacagawea, Neil Armstrong, Babe Ruth, Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy and the Wright brothers. But there was also an eclectic mix of figures from the arts, culture and sports, including Walt Whitman, Kobe Bryant, Johnny Cash, Julia Child, Elia Kazan and Hannah Arendt, as well as a number of conservative intellectuals and activists, including Whittaker Chambers and Russell Kirk.
That second order also directed that one-twelfth of the budgets of the humanities endowment and the National Endowment for the Arts be directed to the project. Each endowment had a budget of $207 million last year.
Both of Mr. Trump’s orders were rescinded by President Biden. But shortly after returning to office, Mr. Trump reinstated them in a new order titled “Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday.” At the same time, he has moved to reshape or seize control of federal cultural institutions, from the Kennedy Center to the Smithsonian Institution.
No details about the garden or its potential location have been released. But last month, Larry Rhoden, the governor of South Dakota, sent a letter to Mr. Trump suggesting that it be built in the Black Hills, near Mount Rushmore.
The White House and Mr. McDonald, the agency chair, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
At this week’s meeting, attendees said, Mr. McDonald said that about $17 million from the National Endowment for the Humanities and about $17 million from the National Endowment for the Arts would be directed to the Garden of Heroes. The hypothetical cost of each statue, described as somewhere between $100,000 and $200,000, was also discussed, attendees said.
Mr. McDonald, a longtime agency employee who became acting chair in March after the previous chair, a Biden appointee, was dismissed by Mr. Trump, also suggested that the humanities endowment would have a role in signage and interpretation, attendees said, though it was unclear what role if any the advisory council would play.
The advisory council includes a mix of scholars and educators appointed by Presidents Obama, Trump and Biden. Three attendees described the group’s reaction to the news about the sculpture garden as one of stunned silence, though at least one member expressed excitement that it would become a reality.
One attendee described a sense of betrayal that the group had learned through the news media last week that Mr. McDonald had sent letters to more than 1,200 grant recipients, canceling their already-approved funding, without consulting or even informing the council. And there was dismay, the attendee said, that the agency’s detailed procedures for evaluating grants, which involve panels of experts and ultimate sign-off by the advisory council, had been swept aside.
Since last week’s cuts, advocates have expressed particular concern about state humanities councils across the country, which by law must receive a portion of the overall N.E.H. budget. Without the federal funding, which totaled about $65 million last year, they fear that some of the councils, particularly in smaller states without a strong base of private philanthropy, may simply collapse.
“The N.E.H. budget for humanities councils is small, but the losses to everyday Americans will be devastating,” the Federation of State Humanities Councils, an umbrella group, said in a statement last week.
Last week, the agency also began putting the majority of its staff on administrative leave. According to the attendees at Wednesday’s meeting, Mr. McDonald said the agency’s staff would be reduced to about 50, from the current total of roughly 170. And while the overall future budget was not clarified, Mr. McDonald said the agency would likely focus on fewer but larger grants.
Jennifer Schuessler is a reporter for the Culture section of The Times who covers intellectual life and the world of ideas.
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