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Trump administration officials directed national park staff to review all items in gift shops for “anti-American” content by this Friday, according to reporting from The Washington Post. The directive instructs park staff to report all retail items that have content that “inappropriately disparages Americans past or living” or that includes “matters unrelated to the beauty, abundance, or grandeur” of a natural feature in its description.
This directive enforces an executive order from March seeking to reshape how American history is portrayed at federal institutions, including at national parks and other Interior department sites. The new directive puts park leaders in a tough position, given that many parks have a specific mission to inform the public about the Civil War, Indigenous history, slavery, or other topics that the Trump administration might qualify as a negative portrayal of American history.
“If we have a park that’s telling a difficult-to-hear story but that story is part of history, there’s been no attempt to change that story,” said Julie Thompson, a spokesperson for Western National Parks, a nonprofit that provides support for many national park gift shops in the West.
Arizona governor, senators question Burgum on response to Grand Canyon wildfire
In a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Arizona Senators Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly questioned the Interior department’s initial response to the Dragon Bravo Fire, which spread quickly over the weekend and burned down several structures, including the Grand Canyon Lodge. Though it was started by a lightning strike, park officials initially decided to monitor the fire as a controlled burn. Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs called for an independent investigation into the federal response, particularly the decision to “manage that fire as a controlled burn during the driest, hottest part of the Arizona summer.”
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This idea that there's some kind of national emergency is laughable. It's really more of a pretext to loot our public lands to benefit very, very few people at the expense of all Americans.”
