When a new executive order put QR codes in parks asking visitors to flag “disparaging” history, 35,000 people wrote back. A Sierra Club lawsuit shows they brought receipts—and plenty of sarcasm.
Some 35,000 comments were submitted in response to the Trump administration’s removal of signs at NPS sites (Photo: Isabel Pavia/Getty Images)
Published June 3, 2026 04:37PM
As part of its move to flag historical and cultural signs across hundreds of National Park Service (NPS) locations around the country, the Trump administration solicited comments from site visitors. Some 35,000 people responded—many with sarcastic, mocking, and bitter humor.
In May 2025, President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to review how American history is portrayed at the 435 NPS sites nationwide. Some of the signs removed so far include references to climate change, slavery, LGBTQ+ rights, the mistreatment of Native Americans, and Japanese internment.
To flag signs that the Trump administration claimed “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living,” officials placed a QR code that linked to an online feedback form, where visitors could leave comments.
But in many ways, the plan backfired. Thousands of the comments submitted either poked fun at or expressed anger towards the administration’s intent to flag displays representing American history.
The NPS published the comments on May 22 in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Sierra Club, which is suing the Department of the Interior over the executive order. The comments were collected between June 2025 and January 2026.
The comments range from articulate rebuttals to expletive-filled rants, but are almost unanimously critical of the direction the government is taking under Trump. (The acronym “FDT,” which stands for “F*** Donald Trump,” appears more than 4,000 times.
Visitors also brought receipts—and plenty of sarcasm. Outside dug through the 35,000 comments and found some of the spiciest.
For example, one visitor to Arizona’s Grand Canyon mocked the signs reminding visitors to stay hydrated in the desert park.
There were signs warning me about it being hot and that drinking water can keep me alive. I feel disparaged! What if I want to get dizzy, stumble around, vomit, and die a slow horrible death? It’s my RIGHT as an American to die from my poor choices. How dare you try to protect me? —Grand Canyon National Park
At Palo Alto National Battlefield in Texas, a site marking a key conflict leading up to the Mexican–American War, a park visitor seemed to call out Elon Musk, whose SpaceX Starbase is 25 miles away.
Some idiot next door keeps launching rockets and blowing them up, it’s very annoying and ruins the whole experience. —Palo Alto National Battlefield
One commenter at Joshua Tree National Park in California poked fun at the use of speed signs throughout the park.
There are numerous signs in the park telling me when to stop and how fast I’m supposed to drive. These signs disparage me and every other American who drives through the park by suggesting that we can’t use our own judgement [sic] to make these decisions. —Joshua Tree National Park
In Idaho’s Craters of the Moon, a park visitor joked that signs requesting visitors to stay off the park’s volcanic spatter cones were “disparaging.”
A sign at Spatter Cones at Craters of the Moon inappropriately disparages Americans. It implies that Americans are capable of ‘loving an area to death.’ Americans cannot do that, because we are exceptional. ‘Walking off trails may be destroying these spatter cones. ’ Americans cannot destroy rocks with their feet. This inappropriately disparages Americans. Americans are exceptional. Americans cannot destroy nature. Americans merely conquer nature. —Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve
At Kentucky’s Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park, one commenter sarcastically questioned the historical accuracy of the park’s information.
The signage throughout the park is entirely too honest … Words like slavery, division, and civil war appeared with alarming frequency, harshing the nostalgic buzz I was cultivating from the log cabin and gift shop. I came to the birthplace of Lincoln to feel good about America and our heroic President Trump […] I suggest replacing all signage with a single plaque that reads, ‘Lincoln: Perfect Man, Perfect Nation. Also Trump is Perfect. —Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park
A visitor to President Lyndon B. Johnson’s memorial in D.C. took a similar tack, quipping that the name of the memorial was disparaging to Johnson’s memory.
Why does the official name of this NPS unit have an acronym instead of LBJ’s full name? I find this to be disparaging of a past American. —Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial Grove on the Potomac
A tourist at Wyoming’s Devil’s Tower took aim not just at Trump, but at Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
I saw Doug Burgum and Donald Trump engaged in a Devil’s Tower with Marco Rubio in the center. There isn’t enough bleach in the world to scrub that from my memory. Fire those freaks!! —Devil’s Tower National Monument
Alcatraz Island, in California’s Bay Area, was home to one of the most infamous prisons in American history, the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, which closed in 1963. One visitor requested that the NPS reopen it to politicians.
Perhaps you could reopen to house some guests from Washington? —Alcatraz Island
A visitor to the César E. Chávez monument in California seemed to ask for help with an unusual predicament, then directed that aid be sent to the White House.
In the spirit of agriculture I now have several pieces of corn shoved *far* up my rectum and I can’t get them out. I can’t go to the hospital. Please send help to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. —César E. Chávez National Monument
Finally, a tourist at the American Memorial Park, a World War II military memorial in the Northern Mariana Islands, took issue with the absence of the U.S. mascot.
Not enough bald eagles, MORE BALD EAGLES. WHY AM I NOT INSTANTLY GREATED [sic] BY BALD EAGLES. —American Memorial Park
