During an Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), co-chair of the National Parks Subcommittee, criticized the Trump administration for what he described as efforts to “rewrite history” within the National Park Service.
King said it is essential for the Park Service to interpret the full scope of American history — including painful chapters — rather than remove references that could cast the nation in a negative light.
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Earlier this year, the administration ordered signs removed from national parks and historic sites that addressed topics such as slavery and Japanese American incarceration. Last week, the administration also announced that Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth would no longer be free-entry days and would be replaced with President Trump’s birthday.
“I’m also worried and concerned about the effort to whitewash our history — to rewrite history within the National Park system,” King said in his opening remarks. “We have had triumphs… but we also have some dark parts of our history… Slavery, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, segregation, the treatment of Native Americans… those are things we can’t avoid — we can’t forget.”
King referenced a biography of Cicero he recently read, noting the Roman statesman’s warning that “to not know history is to live your whole life as a child.”
“To remove a display about slavery at Harpers Ferry is like removing model rockets from Cape Kennedy,” King said. “This does not contribute to our citizens’ understanding… It doesn’t change what happened. It only changes our citizens’ understanding of those things.”
King, a longtime conservation advocate and chair of the National Parks Subcommittee, helped lead passage of the Great American Outdoors Act and has pushed for stronger park maintenance funding and workforce support. He has spent more than four decades working on land conservation in Maine, including establishing the Land for Maine’s Future program and expanding state conservation efforts during his two terms as governor.