National Park Visitors Are Not Impressed With Trump’s Revisionism
“Honest History Matters!” Protesters lining up
Donald Trump’s EO entitled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” was issued on March 27th, taking aim at the Smithsonian Institution and the National Park Service for daring to try to tell the whole story of American History, and not just the parts that validate the White America version that Trump believes.
Section 1. Purpose and Policy. Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth. This revisionist movement seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light. Under this historical revision, our Nation’s unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed.
Kind of hard to read those words the day after the Juneteenth holiday, in the midst of Pride month, and after Trump’s budget slashing the funding of tribal colleges and universities by 90% went up to Congress, but I guess Trump’s gotta Trump.
Fast forward a couple of months, and we can see how the Department of the Interior is looking to implement Trump’s EO. From NPR, June 9, 2025:
The Department of the Interior is requiring the National Park Service (NPS) to post signage at all sites across the country by June 13, asking visitors to offer feedback on any information that they feel portrays American history and landscapes in a negative light.
The June 9 memo sent to regional directors by National Park Service comptroller Jessica Bowron and leaked to NPR states the instructions come in response to President Trump’s March “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” executive order and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s follow-up order last month requesting its implementation. Trump’s original order included a clause ordering Burgum to remove content from sites that “inappropriately disparages Americans past or living and instead focuses on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people.”
I can just see Burgum rubbing his hands together with glee. “MAGA’s gonna love this. It’s DIY DOGE-ing the liberals while they visit the parks!” Similarly, I can hear Stephen Miller’s reply of “Excellent” in his best Mr. Burns voice.
Well fellas, you asked, and National Park visitors answered. Spoiler alert: Burgum and Miller will not be happy. From Government Executive yesterday:
In the responses submitted by visitors to National Park Service sites, however, which were obtained by Government Executive, no single submission pointed to any such examples [of inappropriate signage and language]. Instead, in the nearly 200 submissions NPS received in the first days since the solicitations were posted, visitors implored the administration not to erase U.S. history and praised agency staff for improving their experiences.
[snip]
So far, NPS is not getting the help it was hoping for from those scanning the QR codes now posted around park sites soliciting assistance in identifying language in violation of Trump and Burgum’s orders. Instead, visitors accused the Trump administration of seeking to erase the nation’s history.
What? Unpossible! What did those pesky park visitors say? GovExec goes on:
“There shouldn’t be signs about history that whitewash and erase the centuries of discrimination against the people who have cared for this land for generations,” a visitor to Indian Dunes National Park said.
A visitor to Independence Hall in Philadelphia called the new signs “censorship dressed up as customer service.”
“What upset me the most about the museum—more than anything in the actual exhibits—were the signs telling people to report anything they thought was negative about Americans,” the visitor said. “That isn’t just frustrating, it’s outrageous. It felt like an open invitation to police and attack historians for simply doing their jobs: telling the truth.”
Several visitors to the Stonewall National Monument in New York lamented changes there the park’s website that removed mention of transgender individuals in the Stonewall Uprising.
“Put them back,” the visitor said. “Honor them. There would be no Stonewall without trans people.”
More truth-telling at the link.
Some protesters wave signs as they march in the streets. Others scan QR codes and write comments.
These aren’t comments on lefty websites. These are official public comments to government requests for input from the public – input some poor soul has to read and summarize for Burgum and Miller. Can you picture the cold sweat breaking out on that civil servant’s brow, realizing he or she might be facing their own firing as the bearer of bad news? Sure you can.
Meanwhile, lots of folks are planning their next visit to a national park. By all means, go check them out, and don’t forget to click that QR code. Especially if you visit the Stonewall National Monument.
Last weekend, it was millions of loud voices shouting “No Kings!” This weekend, let it be millions of quiet thumbs and fingers tapping their phones.
Let the Good Trouble Making go on!
OMG he is SUCH a whiny little bitch. If you tell the truth you are “attacking America’s principles.” Just like when a reporter asks him a question he doesn’t like he says “Why can’t you ask me a positive question?”
Nothing says “American principles” like drilling for oil in our national parks or renaming our military bases after Confederate traitors.
I lack the vocabulary to express my hatred and contempt for this “human.”
How do you tell the story of Angel Island without talking about the Chinese Exclusion Act?
How do you tell the story of the Trail of Tears without talking about forcible removal and death?
How do you tell the story of Dred Scott without talking about Roger Taney’s ruling that makes some people into UnPeople?
How do you tell the story of the Underground Railroad without talking about WHY folks were so desperate to get out of state-sanctioned slavery?
How do you tell the story of Japanese Internment Camps without talking about taking away rights based only on a suspicion of possible disloyalty based on no actual evidence at all?
But that’s what Trump wants to do.
How do you tell the story of Stonewall without Marsha Johnson?
You don’t tell the story. That’s the whole point.
And like you, Matt, I hate these people more than I ever thought I could.
Trump knows more about America’s history than anybody. Believe me. Just see his River of Blood plaque.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/donald-trump-civil-war-monument/
Statement from the Japanese-American National Museum:
The Japanese American National Museum (JANM) denounces the signs at the Manzanar and Minidoka National Historic Sites, as well as at the national historic sites and parks, that encourage guests to report any information that is deemed critical of American history.
This new directive originates from the administration’s executive order, Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History, followed by a memorandum issued by the Secretary of the US Department of the Interior on May 20, 2025, and subsequent instructions from the National Park Service comptroller on June 9, 2025. These directives require park superintendents to identify and flag signs, exhibits, films, and other public-facing content that are deemed to disparage US history. Collectively, they form part of the administration’s broader, ongoing campaign to dismantle foundational principles of diversity and democracy, suppress historical narratives that challenge their preferred version of events, and erase the contributions of people of color, women, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and other marginalized communities from the American story.
“JANM is deeply disturbed by this new directive, especially at historical sites like Manzanar and Minidoka where Japanese Americans were unjustly incarcerated during World War II. The Museum reiterates that the widespread dismantling of federal agencies that support our work and the attempts at the wholesale erasure of history will not help us achieve a more just America. The implications stretch far beyond America’s historical sites and parks, which is why we must continue to challenge revisionist history and other threats to democracy immediately. As JANM has said before, history does not yield to censorship or political ideologies. It demands honest, transparent conversations and a commitment to having an evolving understanding of how the past shapes the present and the future. JANM will continue to embody our mission, ensure that history is told fully and truthfully, and carry the lessons of history forward,” said Ann Burroughs, JANM President and CEO.
MAGA version:
During WWII the Government assisted Japanese Americans in moving to New Beautiful homes, all free of charge. Rather than saying “Thank You” these UNGRATEFUL and NASTY (ILLEGAL?) so-called Americans demanded reparations.
Got a link for this, Matt?
Seems to be only on JANM’s Facebook page and I didn’t want to link to FB here. I searched for it on their website (https://www.janm.org) and didn’t find this particular statement but I did find a link to a similar one from 3 weeks ago also authored by Ann Burroughs, speaking more generally against Trump admin implementation of immigration policies and how it affects their museum:
https://www.aam-us.org/2025/05/27/staying-true-to-mission-why-janm-spoke-out/
If you want the link to this particular statement from FB, let me know and I’ll provide a broken link to it here.
No; it’s my Trump impression. Realistic, eh?
Sorry – I meant Matt___B
In addition to drilling, mining minerals, and logging, it seems the National Parks might be repurposed for the billionaire techbros to build out their Network States. Here’s a particularly creepy video angling for Alameda Point, California, which is a couple of miles from San Francisco.
https:// youtu.be/YYqk2hfG1jE
They’ve also been trying to get the Presidio, which is part of the Golden Gate national rec Area, and has a lot of visitors, as wells as having a long history (which the techbro billionaires don’t know or care about).
Years ago, when privatization of the Presidio was under consideration, I was chatting with a tailor in Seoul while getting fitted for a suit. He had actually been “in tech” in the Bay Area before returning to Korea and when I mentioned the possibility of privatization, he stopped, looked at me, and said “That would be an outrage!” I agreed.
I just happened to see that Heather Cox Richardson RePosted
the following link just after I read your comment here, LaMissy!
https://bsky.app/profile/jillianelliott.bsky.social/post/3ls2eaz4stc2y
June 20, 2025 at 11:31 AM
Links to:
Heather Cox Richardson, American Conversations: Technology Reporter Gil Duran [VIDEO] [That section begins at 15:06]
If they’re billionaires, they can damned well BUY the land they’re proposing to use.
I wouldn’t call that that video particularly creepy – it’s more of a fever dream and a pitch for the marks.
Alameda Point isn’t a National Park, and it sure as hell isn’t anywhere near Silicon Valley. It is a former Naval Air Station on the island of Alameda, closed in the 1990s under a Congressional round of military base closures. The City of Alameda is now in charge of it, and has established a City Hall Annex in the old Base Headquarters building. Development of the Point has moved in fits and starts, largely because of the environmental cleanup necessary in the non-residential parts of the old base as well as general economic conditions.
For most non-Bay Area folks, Alameda Point is most famous as the site of many large-scale tests run by the Mythbusters, as well as for filming used in a bunch of movies, including The Matrix.
Billionaires might lust over owning it for its views of SF, but this video is a joke.
This is exactly the response that makes you proud to be an American. We are the shining city on the hill; trying to reach it is the goal, not reaching a cheap facsimile of the city.