The Interior Department unveiled a patriotic installation at D.C.’s Freedom Plaza as the Trump administration emphasizes America’s 250th anniversary.
The Trump administration has unveiled a new Revolutionary War-themed installation at Freedom Plaza in downtown Washington, placing a statue of Caesar Rodney alongside 12 soldiers from the independence era at one of the capital’s most visible civic gathering spaces.
The Department of the Interior described the display as part of a broader push to mark America’s 250th anniversary. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told Fox News Digital that the exhibition is “a powerful tribute to the patriots whose service and sacrifice helped secure the freedoms we enjoy today.”
The installation gives a prominent patriotic focus to a plaza that has long carried political symbolism in Washington. Freedom Plaza, a federal property along Pennsylvania Avenue, has hosted demonstrations and encampments over the years, including Occupy D.C. activity in 2011 and gatherings connected to the George Floyd protests in 2020.
The 2020 unrest in Washington was centered more heavily around Lafayette Square and the area later named Black Lives Matter Plaza, but Freedom Plaza served as a staging point for activists before marches through city streets, according to the source report. The site also had been associated with homeless encampments before recent federal crackdowns under the Trump administration.
Rodney is remembered for his July 1776 overnight ride from Delaware to Philadelphia, where his vote helped break a deadlock in Delaware’s delegation and support the colonies’ move toward independence. A statue of Rodney in Wilmington, Delaware, was removed during 2020 debates over monuments and historical figures with ties to slavery; the Interior Department has now moved the statue to Freedom Plaza as part of the anniversary display.
The 12 Revolutionary War figures represented with Rodney are Simon Knowles, Caesar Glover, Joseph Warren, Jude Hall, Peter Muhlenberg, James Armistead Lafayette, Samuel Whittemore, Jack Sisson, James Caldwell, Peter Salem, Naphtali Daggett and Salem Poor.
Freedom Plaza opened in 1980 as Western Plaza and was renamed in 1988 in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. The plaza is expected to host a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the exhibit, though the source report did not provide a date.
Comments (0)