The Trump administration, apparently deciding that truth is just a matter of branding, asked National Park visitors to mark any exhibits that made America look bad — all in service of transforming historic sites into feel-good monuments where nothing bad ever happened to anyone, ever, according to The Independent.
You know, like history, and important stuff like that, that the administration has repeatedly tried to whitewash.
A Sierra Club lawsuit pried loose 35,000 public comments, and spoiler: the public was not on board. The overwhelming response was one giant "are you serious right now," with a significant chunk of visitors calling the whole scheme "un-American," which, for a project literally about American monuments, is a pretty spectacular own goal.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued an order targeting "inappropriate content." Of course, we’re all aware of what this administration deems as “Inappropriate.”
The results didn’t work out in his favor, though. The watchdog group, Save Our Signs, calculated at least 59 signs and exhibits that were pulled or sanitized, with the edits hitting hardest on anything regarding slavery, climate change, women's rights, or Native American history. Because if you can't erase the past, apparently, the next best thing is to unscrew it from the wall quietly.
Visitors weren't shy in their comments, with many drawing comparisons to fascist-style historical revisionism, while others laid in over references to DEI and critical race theory — seemingly unaware, or perhaps unconcerned, that "don't talk about the bad stuff" is doing a lot of the same ideological heavy lifting they claim to oppose.
Trump is the king of self-owns. Hey, we've all got to be good at something.
