US President Donald Trump hosted a reception celebrating Black History Month at the White House on Thursday, honoring the contributions of Black Americans to the nation's history.
Trump said a statue park he is calling the National Garden of American Heroes that he intends to build at a yet-to-be-determined site will include representations of "countless Black American icons" such as Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Coretta Scott King, Frederick Douglas, Jackie Robinson, Martin Luther King Jr., Muhammad Ali and Kobe Bryant.
"We're going to save Tiger Woods for another time," he joked, as Woods stood on stage. "During Black History Month, we pay tribute to these heroes and to so many others, not simply because they're Black heroes, but also because they are truly American heroes who inspire us."
Prominent attendees at the East Room event included Woods, Republican Sen. Tim Scott, Rep. John James and conservative podcast host Sage Steele, as well as Alice Johnson, a woman pardoned by Trump in 2020 after being sentenced to life in prison for cocaine trafficking.
Johnson has since gone on to become a criminal justice reform advocate, and Trump said he would be tapping her to be his "pardon tsar."
