It’s a D.C. rec sports haven, but Trump wants it for his ‘Heroes’ sculpture park
The president announced he wants to build the memorial on West Potomac Park, a popular spot with local athletic teams.
One day after work this week, Patrick Mulshnock walked through the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, the labyrinthian monument tucked against the Tidal Basin, his athletic shorts and blue T-shirt absorbing the early-evening heat. First pitch was just a few minutes away.
Mulshnock, a 36-year-old schoolteacher, has played softball for his alma mater, the University of Delaware, in the Capitol Alumni Network league for 10 years. More than 40 colleges field a team in the league, in divisions named for fast-food empires. The softball fields at West Potomac Park, adjacent to the National Mall and nestled among the monuments and memorials between the Tidal Basin and Potomac River, have hosted his games nearly as long.
But the league’s days of relying on the park’s fields may be numbered.
President Donald Trump announced May 15 on his Truth Social platform that West Potomac Park has been selected for his planned National Garden of American Heroes, a sculpture garden Trump has said will feature life-size statues of approximately 250 historically significant Americans. Previous executive orders included a list of names including Christopher Columbus, Kobe Bryant, and more.
“It disappoints me so much, knowing that all this could be taken away,” Mulshnock said. “Hundreds of people, between soccer and Frisbee and softball, use these fields and have used them for a long time. … It’s really sad.”
In his post, Trump described West Potomac Park as “a totally BARREN field of Prime Waterfront Real Estate.”
Tourists riding a trolley tour around the Mall on a recent evening could see the sunset over the Potomac through one side of the trolley and the four concurrent softball games on the other. Further up the river, closer to the Lincoln Memorial, two more softball games were underway, while a large pickup soccer game kicked off on yet another part of the park.
The park was created with silt dredged from the Potomac River in the 1880s and has long been a hot spot for recreation. Soccer and softball are its lifeblood, but it also contains a popular running trail and is filled with visitors in the spring for the cherry blossoms.
“The league has been here a lot longer than anyone in the current administration has. People love this area,” Mulshnock said. “And it’s not just our league. Multiple leagues play here. I don’t think I’m ever going to go a sculpture garden in my life that’s going to take away the fields that I’ve come to depend on.”
Much of the park’s area is “reserve” land governed by the Commemorative Works Act; transforming it into the sculpture garden or any other new memorial project would probably require congressional approval.
Trump, though, has aggressively pursued a full makeover of the park and the nearby East Potomac Golf Links, a historic public course he says he plans to turn into a championship course worthy of hosting majors. A top Trump fundraiser recently began soliciting donations for a nonprofit dedicated to overhauling both sites.
“When finished, West Potomac Park will be a World Class Masterpiece with elegant Landscaping, and adorned with Beautiful Statues,” Trump wrote, “and be yet another one of my great projects to make Washington, D.C., the Safest and Most Beautiful Capital in the World.”
The rendering Trump shared on Truth Social with his announcement shows a couple of open grassy spaces amid the landscaping and pathways, though there’s no indication of anyone using the space for athletic activity.
On Tuesday evening, as teams from some 10 schools fanned out for games on the four fields, several members of the league underscored the fields’ popularity with anecdotes about how difficult it is to reserve time in the sought-after evening hours. And when the fields are booked, the alternate options are often more expensive and harder to get to.
“It’d be a pretty significant change because these are the most accessible fields in D.C.,” said Scott Nuckols, who has played for North Carolina’s alumni softball team since 2011. “Even now, when some of the fields have been closed [for construction around the Tidal Basin sea wall], we’ve been pushed out to Goddard in Maryland, which is a lot more inconvenient. … This is the best option, especially without a car.”
Nuckols’ Tar Heels lost Tuesday night to the Blue Hens, but he was smiling as he pedaled toward home. Under the setting sun, the Jefferson Memorial took on a pinkish glow, the Washington Monument peeked over the trees, and another softball game started on the next field over.