A Trump order asked national park visitors to flag ‘negative’ historical info. They had other ideas

The Trump administration last year issued a plea to visitors at U.S. national parks: Report any displays or exhibits saying “negative” things about Americans living in the past or present.

- by Jack Dura and Mead Gruver Associated Press

But most people who responded instead weighed in to criticize the effort itself, according to an Associated Press analysis of 35,000 public comments submitted in the second half of 2025 and recently made public through a lawsuit.

One visitor to a park in North Carolina called the administration’s efforts “un-American.” Another derided the idea of “having Americans call in and snitch on each other.”

“Hey Donald Trump!” wrote a person in North Dakota’s Theodore Roosevelt National Park, “Trying to erase history doesn’t mean it didn’t still happen!”

A large chunk — more than half, not even accounting for duplicative submissions — was a backlash to the effort itself, according to an Associated Press analysis.

What the Trump administration did

Some comments submitted in response to the administration’s solicitation flagged interpretive changes that officials might now seek to undo — and in dozens of cases already have, according to one group.

But considering that the National Park Service logged some 323 million visits at more than 400 sites last year, the 35,000 initial public comments received from June to January and released following a lawsuit were a tepid response.

An order by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum last year targeted “inappropriate content,” including any signs and exhibits that are “negative about either past or living Americans or that fail to emphasize the beauty, grandeur, and abundance of landscapes and other natural features.”

The order following President Donald Trump’s “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” sought to emphasize America’s achievements and the splendor of its landscape.