Last year, the Trump administration asked visitors to national parks across America to report any exhibits or displays presenting "negative" perspectives on Americans — living or historical. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered staff to identify and remove "inappropriate content" — defined as anything that fails to "emphasize the beauty, grandeur, and abundance" of America or that says anything critical about Americans past or present.

In other words: the federal government asked citizens to snitch on history.

The public pushed back hard. Out of 35,000 comments submitted, the majority used the opportunity to criticize the program itself. One visitor called it "un-American." Another said it was "straight out of the fascist playbook." A visitor at Theodore Roosevelt National Park addressed Trump directly: "Trying to erase history doesn't mean it didn't still happen."

But the administration kept going anyway. A watchdog group called Save Our Signs has documented at least 59 signs removed or altered at national parks across the country — covering slavery, climate change, women's rights, and Native American history. At Philadelphia's Independence National Historical Park, exhibits about nine people enslaved by George Washington in the 1790s were removed entirely. A court ordered them restored. The administration appealed.

This is not about restoring truth to American history. It is about replacing history with propaganda — and using the American public as the enforcement mechanism.

National parks belong to everyone. The history they preserve — including the painful, complicated, and uncomfortable parts — belongs to everyone too. Erasing it does not make America greater. It makes America less honest.

We're calling on the Trump administration to immediately shut down its national park reporting program, restore all removed and altered exhibits, and stop using public lands to rewrite American history.