The Trump administration directed the National Park Service (NPS) to remove signs that were critical of American history and instead promote the “progress of the American people.”
The order directed as many as 433 NPS sites to remove critical signs meant to “inappropriately disparage Americans” while insisting on messages to promote the “progress of the American people” and the “grandeur of the American landscape.” A deadline was set for September 17, 2025. Certain messages that were erased pertained to climate change, past racial divisions, Native American history, and slavery. Per the New York Times:
At Cape Hatteras National Seashore, for instance, the internal documents show that a Park Service employee asked the Trump administration to review a sign that explains how rising seas are threatening the habitat of wild horses.
At the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, park employees flagged an exhibit panel that discussed the bell’s travels across the country during the post-Reconstruction period. The panel “calls out the systemic and violent racism and sexism that existed at the time,” employees noted.
And at the nearby Independence National Historical Park, where the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were debated and signed, park staff raised concerns about an exhibit that memorializes nine slaves whom George Washington had brought from Mount Vernon. One panel emphasizes the intentional brutality of slaveholders, which included whippings, beatings, torture and rape.
Dan Wenk, a former superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, accused the administration of covering up “things in our history that we are not proud of anymore.”
“The national parks were established to tell the American story, and we shouldn’t just tell all the things that make us look wonderful,” said Wenk. “We have things in our history that we are not proud of anymore.”
Kristen Brengel, senior vice president of government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association, said Park Service employees disagree with the order.
“Park staff are in a bind here,” Brengel said. “If they don’t comply with this directive, they could lose their jobs.”
Elizabeth Peace, a spokeswoman for the Interior Department, the parent agency of the Park Service, said the Trump administration’s order does not aim to whitewash history or rewrite the past.
“Interpretive materials that disproportionately emphasize negative aspects of U.S. history or historical figures, without acknowledging broader context or national progress, can unintentionally distort understanding rather than enrich it,” Peace said in a statement. “Our goal is to foster honest, respectful storytelling that educates visitors while honoring the complexity of our nation’s shared journey.”
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