SouthernWorldwide.com – A federal judge appointed by President Biden has ordered the Trump administration to reinstate exhibits and other materials in national parks that focused on slavery and climate change. These displays were previously removed under a directive aimed at eliminating content deemed disparaging to the United States.
U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley, who was appointed to the federal bench by Joe Biden in 2021, issued a preliminary injunction on Friday. This order mandates that the administration reverse the changes and halt any further removals while legal challenges are ongoing.
The ruling comes as the nation approaches the America 250 celebrations, which will culminate on July 4th.
In response, the Interior Department labeled Kelley as a “liberal activist judge” and stated they are reviewing their options for an appeal. Secretary Doug Burgum had previously criticized the removed content as “improper partisan ideology.”
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The executive order signed by Trump on March 27, 2025, titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” aimed to re-establish American heritage in national parks and monuments. The order contended that these sites had been altered to promote a “false reconstruction of American history,” particularly in the wake of the 2020 race riots that potentially influenced Biden’s election.
Trump directed the Interior Department to take appropriate legal action to ensure that U.S. government descriptions and depictions do not “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.” Instead, the focus should be on “the greatness” of America.
Judge Kelley noted that the plaintiffs had demonstrated the administration’s actions were intended “to rewrite the Nation’s history with a white-out pen.” However, Trump’s rationale for the order was the “false reconstruction” of U.S. history under Biden, the president who appointed Kelley.
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According to Kelley, the removal of disparaging content about Americans and the emphasis on U.S. greatness set a “dangerous precedent of censorship and sanitization.”
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The judge also mandated that the administration submit weekly status reports detailing its progress in restoring the affected materials.
Among the items removed by Burgum’s Interior Department was an exhibit at Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park that detailed George Washington’s ownership of enslaved people. Additionally, signage at Fort Sumter in South Carolina, which addressed climate threats, was also removed.
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“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,” Kelley wrote.
Trump’s executive order was intended to “restore truth and sanity to American history” across the nation’s museums, parks, and landmarks. Burgum subsequently directed the removal of what he termed “improper partisan ideology” from museums, monuments, landmarks, and other public exhibits under federal control.
“Museums in our nation’s capital should be places where individuals go to learn — not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history,” the Trump order stated.
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Other changes that drew criticism from those described as leftist ideologues included the removal of a sign at Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument in Arizona that featured an image of a visitor holding a Pride flag. Films about labor history at Lowell National Historical Park in Massachusetts were also removed.
“They were doing everything from climate extremism to DEI, ESG, you name it, and they were doing it all opposed to what the American people voted for and what President Trump promised the American people we would do.”
