A federal judge has slapped down President Donald Trump’s crusade to rewrite history at National Parks.
U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley directed the National Park Service to stop implementing Trump’s March 2025 executive order aimed at “restoring truth and sanity to American history” by cracking down on “improper partisan ideology.”
In a scathing 63-page memorandum, Kelley sided with a coalition of national park and history advocates who sued to stop the Trump administration from taking down signs, displays, and exhibits at parks that it deemed “distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.”
Kelley, a Biden appointee, gave the federal government 21 days to restore and reinstall materials that had been taken down at park sites.
“The beauty of history is the unvarnished storytelling of a time gone by and the delivery of undeniable truths. The Government’s stewardship of these park sites thus carries a responsibility to present history in full rather than in favored fragments,” she wrote.
“Unfortunately, the Government has disregarded these principles. Under the guise of promoting American dignity, this Administration seeks to share a limited history by ordering the removal of all signs, displays, and interpretive exhibits at National Parks that do not align with its preferred narrative, thereby telling half-truths.”
In January, National Park Service staff took down slavery exhibits at Philadelphia’s Independence Mall, triggering a lawsuit from Mayor Cherelle Parker. The Philadelphia Inquirer had obtained internal comments showing that the exhibit was one of several slavery displays in Philadelphia flagged for review by the Trump administration after the executive order was issued.
Kelley wrote that efforts by the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service have shown that they “seek to rewrite the Nation’s history with a white-out pen.”
“History cannot be faithfully told while excluding the experiences of communities whose contributions, struggles, and achievements form an important part of our Nation’s story,” she said. “Indeed, at a time of facts and alternative facts, the only thing we must be able to rely on as undeniable truth is history. And telling the full truths of our shared story helps our Nation heal from past wrongs, rather than prolonging us.”
The order marks the latest in a string of losses for Trump, who has been on a quest to remake America in his image.
On Friday, crews began taking the president’s name off the facade of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., after a judge said only Congress has the power to rename the storied arts institution.
Last week, a federal judge blasted U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for failing to comply with his order to resume immigration processing, which was suspended after two National Guard members were shot last year.
Last month, another federal judge ordered an investigation into Trump’s settlement of his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS amid claims that it was “premised on deception.”
