US Politics
Leaked government database shows Trump administration flagging national parks for being too historically accurate
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.
Read more
The Trump administration has flagged hundreds of historically accurate materials at national parks around the country to make sure they comply with a presidential order that forbids “inappropriately” disparaging past and present Americans, according to a leaked database from government workers, who claim the files show the White House “censoring science and history.”
A group that said they were “civil servants on the front lines” posted the files online on Monday anonymously, sharing nearly 900 incidents where managers and other parks staff submitted questions about whether historical signs and gift shop items complied with Trump’s 2025 order to “restore truth and sanity to American history.”
In one incident, someone tied to the park encompassing the White House raised questions about materials that read, “The use of enslaved labor to build the home of the President of the United States-often seen as a symbol of democracy-illuminates our country’s conflicted relationship with the institution of slavery and the ideals of freedom and equality promised in America’s founding documents.”
“Needs review to assess if statement contains disparaging content,” the person wrote.
Another, at Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, asks for review about materials describing the use of the Kilauea Military Camp as part of the mass imprisonment of Japanese-Americans during WWII.
open image in gallery
Others express concern that materials sold in park gift shops could run afoul of the Trump administration, which has also kicked off a sweeping review of Smithsonian-affiliated museums and government websites to ensure its particular version of history is reflected.
One entry in the database catalogues potential violations at the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument in the capital.
“A few are books about the suffrage movement and some of the more radical things they did and several are negative to President [Woodrow] Wilson, who opposed the movement,” the entry reads. “5 are books, the others are pins, magnets, mugs, etc.”
The Washington Post, which first reported on the leak, confirmed the data’s authenticity with current federal employees.
The individuals who posted the data claimed the files show a mass effort to rewrite history in order to justify future abuses.
open image in gallery
“Dismantling trusted sources of science and history makes their agenda of lies easier,” a statement alongside the database reads. “Profiting from coal and oil is a lot easier if the impacts of fossil fuels are censored at sites like Muir Woods, Glacier, Acadia, and Everglades. It’s easier to illegally detain people if we forget the true stories of Japanese-American incarceration in World War II, told at national park sites like Manzanar and Minidoka and Amache and Tule Lake and Honouliuli.”
The Independent has contacted the White House and the Department of the Interior, which oversees the National Park Service, for comment.
Critics of the president’s historical efforts, which have frequently involved scaling back descriptions of the history of racism and oppression in America, have compared the White House campaign to something out of an authoritarian regime.
“As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s 1984 now existed, with its motto ‘Ignorance is Strength,’ this Court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims — to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts,” a federal judge wrote last month in a case over the removal of materials about the history of slavery at the President’s House, the first presidential residence, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The materials were ordered to be returned to the site, while the Trump administration has appealed.
