Lincoln, Disney and Trebek in Trump's `garden of heroes'

Donald Trump on Monday named famous and historical figures he plans to memorialize in a National Garden of American Heroes, including black civil rights leaders, an arcade gamer, and the late host of Jeopardy!

In one of his final acts as president, Trump, who leaves office on Wednesday, issued an executive order for statues to be made of 244 people, including Abraham Lincoln, Kobe Bryant, Whitney Houston and Walt Disney.

Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek, who died in November, was considered one of the odder choices. Trebek, who was born in Sudbury, Ont., was the host for 37 seasons.

Some were surprised to see the inclusion of individuals such as Martin Luther King Jr., Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the late liberal Supreme Court Justice who was replaced by Trump's more conservative pick, and Hannah Arendt, the German-Jewish political theorist who wrote about the rise of fascism and totalitarianism.

The list included frontiersman Davy Crockett, evangelical preacher Billy Graham, and former president Ronald Reagan. William (Billy) Mitchell, an arcade game player who was the first to reach a perfect score on Pac-Man, also was named.

Trump said the garden would be a “vast outdoor park that will feature the statues of the greatest Americans who ever lived.”

James Grossman, executive director of the American Historical Association, said the choices vary from “odd to probably inappropriate to provocative.”