Trump Makes Controversial Request of National Park Visitors

In 2025, the Trump administration asked people to start submitting reports anytime they saw something negative about America or its history while visiting the U.S. National Parks.

The request was made by the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and he said that the request was being made so that visitors would be able to enjoy the "solemn and uplifting" beauty of our country's monuments that would celebrate the country's heritage without having to take a look at the ugly parts of its past.

However, the request received an unexpected response to the Trump administration's request for complaints about the country's parks and exhibits. Instead of getting a ton of feedback about things that the Trump administration would want to remove from the parks, it sounds like a large number of the responses they received were about Trump himself.

Keep reading to learn what types of complaints the Trump administration received as a result of their request.

According to the Associated Press, the original request was for national park visitors to report so-called inappropriate content that appears to be "negative about either past or living Americans or that fail to emphasize the beauty, grandeur, and abundance of landscapes and other natural features."

A major target of this request appeared to be Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park, which saw several exhibits referencing slavery removed as part of this request.

However, the Associated Press says that the request didn't receive as many complaints as one would think. Thanks to a lawsuit, the publication was able to review the 35,000 public comments that were submitted in the latter half of 2025.

And while 35,000 is a lot of complaints to receive, it's hardly a drop in the bucket when you consider that the National Park Service (NPS) saw 323 million visits across more than 400 of the country's parks and exhibits.

While a good number of the complaints that were filed were likely exactly what the Trump administration was looking for. However, according to The Independent, there were plenty of people who took the opportunity to explain why they thought the "negative" history needed to stay.

"We had a great time learning about the development of this site, including the difficult parts of our American story. We need those reminders to help us become even better in the future," one person wrote.

Meanwhile, others opted to take a moment to use the complaint system to crack jokes about the whole thing. "Didn’t see any Bigfeets," one person wrote after visiting Washington’s North Cascades National Park.

However, there are those who think that the whole thing is no laughing matter, and the publication reported that there were those who compared the request to something "Hitler or Mussolini" would've tried.

But, given how few people took the bait on the request and sent in the reports, there's a chance that the complaint system has already seen as much activity as it is going to.