15 perfectly sculpted responses to Trump’s list of 244 planned statues
Having voiced his support for monuments to controversial figures, including those who had owned and traded in slaves, Donald Trump‘s announcement that he had ordered the creation of a vast ‘Garden of American Heroes’, full of statues, had people expecting the worst.
It was much weirder than that.
The list of intended statues contains a wide range of figures, by no means all American – and certainly not all heroes.
Full list of those getting statues in the National Garden of American Heroes per Trump's EO just now pic.twitter.com/YEfBRqlVoL— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) January 18, 2021
A few names that stand out include:
Hannah Arendt – a German political academic who wrote about the rise of Nazism.
Alex Trebek – the Canadian-born gameshow host.
Annie Oakley – the Wild West sharpshooter.
There are 244 of them, so we’ll stop there.
Here’s what Twitter thought of the whole thing.
1.
make the whole thing out of legos and build a big-ass lego civilization around it, possibly with a functioning lego rail system, and i am in https://t.co/t7eatCQt7w
— Erin dude gotta go Ryan (@morninggloria) January 18, 2021
2.
Why is the (Scottish) Alexander Graham Bell in this list? Is it because Trump tweeted that America invented the telephone? https://t.co/3Q6c2CnXZY
— Jemaine Clement (@AJemaineClement) January 18, 2021
3.
And I'll bet they've picked the perfect designer to do it, too. https://t.co/cYvmLr0WjT pic.twitter.com/uStU09myRZ
— Kevin Daly (@kevinddaly) January 18, 2021
4.
The only place in America where you can celebrate Hannah Arendt and Kobe Bryant in one trip. https://t.co/EQSAtBwwxY
— Franklin Leonard (@franklinleonard) January 18, 2021
5.
Oops, no, this is the list of every ghost that visited him in the WH. https://t.co/LZ9NabWK1r
— J. Elvis Weinstein (@JElvisWeinstein) January 18, 2021
6.
more people in this garden than were at his inauguration https://t.co/QC4DUY1Dti
— black, booked (over zoom) and busy (@mordkhetzvi) January 18, 2021
7.
who is your favorite american hero? I'm leaning towards alex trebek (canadian) or hannah arendt (german) https://t.co/4DXVLA6TFQ
— Steven Klein (@stevenmklein) January 18, 2021
8.
Did he … did he draw names at random out of a hat? pic.twitter.com/DLzXVt40PR
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 18, 2021