Trump resurrected slave owner statue; pedestal cost $527k

The National Park Service placed a Caesar Rodney statue in Freedom Plaza near the White House in April, after the statue had previously been taken down in 2020 over Rodney’s role as a plantation owner who enslaved people. New documents reviewed by MISRYOUM sho

In April, the National Park Service quietly moved a statue into view just a short walk from the White House. The figure was Caesar Rodney—a Founding Father from Delaware who helped craft the Declaration of Independence, and who also enslaved people.

The placement in Freedom Plaza drew immediate attention. and renewed criticism. because Rodney’s history complicated the story the statue was now telling. In 2020. the same statue had been removed from its earlier perch in Wilmington amid nationwide protests over police killings and racial injustice. when monuments to Confederate leaders were taken down across the country. That earlier decision reflected a reality many residents and officials couldn’t ignore: Rodney’s record on human rights wasn’t clean.

Now, documents reviewed by MISRYOUM show the federal government didn’t just bring the statue back. It paid a striking amount of taxpayer money to set it on a new foundation.

The National Park Service. which sits within the Department of the Interior. paid $527. 226 “just to build a base” to display the sculpture—an object that had been sitting in storage. Contracting documents also indicate that the pedestal’s cost was nearly double the government’s original estimate. The paperwork describes how the agency awarded and then altered its contracting plan after the fact. using a no-bid process for the Rodney add-on.

The sequence matters. The documents show the agency initially awarded the contract for refurbishing all of Freedom Plaza last December. Then, in January, the Rodney statue was added through a no-bid process. The agency modified the existing contract. conducted no competitive bidding. and agreed to a sharply higher price—justifying it as part of a rush associated with the administration’s broader beautification effort ahead of the 250th anniversary.

An Interior Department official told MISRYOUM: “The work was expedited to ensure it is done before our nation’s 250th.” The official added: “All of the projects throughout DC are set to be done before the Fourth, so they have to be done on a rolling basis.”

That framing is central to how the government defended the added cost. But Project on Government Oversight general counsel Scott Amey called the justification improper.

“By definition, urgency should be used when a delay would result in a serious injury to the government. It’s inconceivable to think that a statue for a holiday celebration meets that standard,” Amey said.

The statue itself is meant to capture a famous episode from July 1776: Rodney’s midnight ride to support the Declaration of Independence after Delaware’s delegates hit a stalemate. The story is part of American folklore—and it is one that. even in its own telling. rests on the reality that the colonies were preparing for a revolt that would be treason in the eyes of Great Britain if the uprising failed.

In June 1776. Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee introduced a resolution calling for the Second Continental Congress to make a formal declaration of independence certifying the 13 original colonies “are and of right ought to be free and independent states.” After a three-week recess. Congress reconvened on July 1 to vote on the resolution. Rodney, who was back in Delaware, was sick with cancer, while Delaware’s other two delegates were split. Hearing of the stalemate, Rodney rode 80 miles to Philadelphia overnight in a thunderstorm to support the resolution.

Even details of the ride are debated. University of Delaware history professor Jonathan Russ said Rodney most likely rode in a carriage for part of the trip. adding that the idea that he rode the entire journey on horseback is probably “romanticized.” Regardless of whether it was mounted the whole way. Rodney’s participation enabled Delaware to join 11 other colonies in supporting the resolution. after New York had initially abstained. The delegates then adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4.

Russ also described the consequences Rodney faced had the Revolutionary War failed. “Whatever punishment [Britain] would have meted out to the [Revolutionary] leaders—be that prison time or ultimately being condemned to death—Rodney would have been on their list,” Russ said.

The monument commemorating Rodney’s ride was unveiled in downtown Wilmington’s Rodney Square on July 4, 1923. In the summer of 2020. amid Black Lives Matter protests after the murder of George Floyd. the statue was removed and placed in a private storage facility. At the time, Wilmington’s mayor unilaterally called for the statue’s removal in June 2020.

Rodney’s record on slavery is part of why the debate never went away. The article notes that in 1776, Rodney introduced a bill in the Delaware assembly to prohibit the importation of slaves into the state. But it also says that he enslaved up to 200 people, according to some historical accounts.

As protests reshaped public displays of history. Donald Trump argued the removals were driven by what he described as anti-American revisionism. In describing the movement as “the result of an extreme anti-American historical revisionism propagated by organizations like the New York Times and its 1619 Project. critical race theorists on college campuses. cancel culture adherents in corporate boardrooms. and flag-burning mobs on city streets who seek to reframe our Nation’s history around the idea that the United States is not an exceptional country but an evil one. ” Trump framed the issue as politics over facts.

That stance has continued into the administration’s current push to mark the country’s 250th birthday. “The Trump administration has been committed to celebrating and acknowledging the full breadth of our nation’s history. including the story of Caesar Rodney and his pivotal ride in July 1776. ” the administration said.

The Rodney statue is only one piece of a broader effort. Trump’s current fixation with statues includes one of Christopher Columbus, placed on White House grounds in the spring. The article says it is a replica of the one originally in Baltimore before protesters knocked it down and threw it into the city’s inner harbor in 2020.

In May. Trump announced plans to build a “Garden of American Heroes” featuring statues of 250 “AMERICAN HEROES” in West Potomac Park near the Washington Monument. According to Trump. the garden will feature “Founding Fathers. Military Warriors. Religious Leaders. Civil Rights Champions. World Class Athletes. Artists. Entertainers. and MORE.”.

The White House has cited the 250th anniversary as the reason for increased costs tied to short timelines. In April. the White House asked Congress for $10 billion for a general fund the administration says will pay for beautification of National Park Service land around Washington. The Department. the article says. requested $3 billion for repair and maintenance needs in National Parks across the rest of the country in 2027.

The administration has also reduced staffing at a time when major projects are being rushed. The article says the department lost more than 2,000 employees to buyouts, forced retirements, and other reductions in staffing over the last year.

Trump has touted efforts to restore fountains throughout Washington ahead of July 4. including repairing long-broken fountains in Lafayette Square near the White House and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on the National Mall. The article states that contracts for that work were awarded to handpicked vendors. sidestepping competitive bidding by invoking an exemption that allows avoiding competition if urgency is required to prevent “serious injury. financial or other. to the government.” For the administration. the July 4 deadline was sufficiently urgent to bypass competitive bidding.

The Rodney installation followed a similar pattern.

The push to find a new public location began in 2022. when Republican state senator Eric Buckson lobbied for the Rodney statue to move to a place accessible to the public. Buckson told MISRYOUM that Rodney was “a very famous. influential. important Delawarean.” Buckson also acknowledged Rodney had enslaved people. adding: “just tell the truth and decide how it is that you want that to be presented. I think we can do both. I know we can.”.

After being told the statue was unlikely to be re-erected in Wilmington, Buckson identified a federally maintained park in Kent County, where Rodney lived. That led Buckson to write a letter to the federal Park Service asking about the process.

Rather than moving the statue to the state capitol in Dover as Buckson explored. an organization Congress charged with organizing events for the semiquincentennial celebration had another idea: moving the statue temporarily to Freedom Plaza in Washington. DC. Buckson said the conversation with the commission began roughly a year ago, last summer.

The DC beautification plan included $50 million to rehab parks and fountains around the city and also included a contract of $7 million to Terra Constructs. a Front Royal. Virginia-based firm. to refurbish Freedom Plaza. The article points out the site is the location of the January 5. 2021 rally by Trump supporters that preceded the President’s better-known rally and ensuing attack on the Capitol the next day.

According to sources and documents reviewed by MISRYOUM, the plans for Freedom Plaza originally included just 12 statues. Shortly after the contract was awarded. the National Park Service modified it to include a stone base to mount the Rodney statue. An Interior Department spokesperson reiterated the administration’s position. saying: “The Trump administration has been committed to celebrating and acknowledging the full breadth of our nation’s history. including the story of Caesar Rodney and his pivotal ride in July 1776.”.

The spokesperson did not answer questions about why the Rodney statue’s installation wasn’t included in the original contract finalized in December. But a department official acknowledged that. once the initial contract was awarded. it made more sense to modify the existing agreement “to include the work on the statue than bringing in a separate company to work in the same space.”.

A document dated April 6 lays out the “record of negotiations” between the construction firm and the National Parks Service. In it, the project manager stated the initial independent government estimate for the statue base was $286,549. The document says that estimate failed to include necessary services. such as the “geotechnical investigations” the firm needed to complete to ensure the statue’s stability.

The project manager also indicated the agency did not have time to negotiate a lower price. “Given the immediate time constraint,” she wrote, “it is not in the interest to delay work with further negotiations.”

The materials show the installation took less than one day of work. For that base for a temporary statue, the Park Service spent more than half a million dollars. Yet the project manager wrote: “Given the expedited nature of the design,” “higher pricing can be justified.”

The result is a familiar argument in Washington: that urgency can justify costs when deadlines are tight and major national celebrations loom. But for critics. the figures attached to the Rodney statue—$527. 226 for a base added through a no-bid contract change. nearly double an original estimate—put the debate in plain view. A historical figure is one thing. A high-priced pedestal built in a rush is another. especially when the controversy around the statue has never truly been resolved.

Caesar Rodney statue Freedom Plaza National Park Service Department of the Interior Trump administration 250th anniversary pedestal cost no-bid contract Project on Government Oversight Scott Amey Wilmington statue removal Christopher Columbus replica Garden of American Heroes