A Controversial Request Backfires
In 2025, following an executive order by then-President Donald Trump titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum asked visitors to U.S. national parks to report any signs or exhibits that presented “negative” views of Americans—past or present. The order targeted “inappropriate content” and aimed to restore park sites as “solemn and uplifting public monuments” celebrating America’s heritage and natural beauty.
However, an Associated Press analysis of 35,000 public comments—submitted in late 2025 and released through a lawsuit—found that most respondents did not comply. Instead, they criticized the request itself.
Public Outcry Over ‘Snitching’
More than half of the comments opposed the initiative. A visitor at a North Carolina park called it “un-American.” Another mocked the idea of “having Americans call in and snitch on each other.” One person at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota wrote directly to Trump: “Trying to erase history doesn’t mean it didn’t still happen!” Several compared the policy to fascist tactics used by Hitler or Mussolini.
Signs Removed or Altered
A watchdog group called Save Our Signs, made up of librarians, historians, and data experts, documented at least 59 signs that had been removed or modified. Jenny McBurney from the University of Minnesota said affected topics included slavery, climate change, women’s rights, and Native American history. “Anything that goes against the idea that America is perfect and can do no wrong seems to be targeted,” she noted.
Many changes occurred at Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park, where exhibits about nine enslaved people who worked under President George Washington in the 1790s were taken down. Some were later restored by a judge’s order, but further work was halted after the administration appealed.
A Few Visitors Played Along
A small number of visitors did flag content they found objectionable. One person at Missouri’s Harry S. Truman National Historic Site complained about an exhibit praising Truman as a “founding father” of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and a precursor of critical race theory (CRT). “I came here to see his hat and maybe a piano, not to read about intersectionality,” the visitor wrote.
Another at Virginia’s Booker T. Washington National Monument objected to a sign calling the Black leader a “father of DEI and early architect of critical race theory,” calling it “blatantly misleading.”
Vague Government Response
An Interior Department spokesperson said in a statement that “in many cases, flagged materials remain unchanged,” but did not answer questions about specific signs or exhibits that had been or would be altered. The 35,000 comments—most of them negative—represented a lukewarm response, given that the National Park Service recorded over 323 million visits in the same year. The comments were made public due to a lawsuit by the Sierra Club.