Weekly Watch: “Freedom 250” Exposed and More Mass Censorship
New Conflicted Park Director Nominee, Shady “Freedom 250” Gets Exposed, and Burgum’s Mass Censorship Campaign Continues
HELENA, MT – Save Our Parks is tracking the massive assault against America’s national parks and public lands system by Donald Trump, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and their cronies, documenting the ongoing consequences of Trump’s unprecedented attack on our nation’s natural heritage.
The Trump administration just announced an extremely conflicted nominee to be director of America’s cherished national parks — park concessionaire Delaware North executive Scott Socha. After Burgum oversaw the slashing and burning of the park service, it’s only going to get worse if the Senate confirms this openly conflicted nominee, which would be akin to putting a fox in charge of the henhouse and turbocharge Burgum’s park privatization push. The late night move comes after over a year of temporary leadership under an acting director and unqualified investment banker Kevin Lilly, who is also in line for a promotion to be the Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife.
Earlier this week, Congressional Democrats exposed Trump and Burgum’s shady “Freedom 250” celebration for what it is: the illegal politicization of America’s 250th anniversary celebration, meant to boost the administration’s political allies and line their pockets. During a Congressional hearing on Tuesday, members unpacked Burgum’s anniversary takeover scheme, and demanded answers on the administration’s wasteful, duplicative effort; its pay-to-play structure; the flow of tax dollars to rightwing nationalist organizations; and the solicitation of anonymous, potentially foreign, donations.
The aptly-named America250 is the bipartisan, Congressionally-authorized celebration a decade in the works. Now, Burgum’s created a parallel and duplicative influence peddling scam and another way for Trump and Burgum to spread their revisionist propaganda, censoring history they don’t like. Save Our Parks applauds the members of Congress who tried to conduct legitimate oversight, and encourages others to do the same. “Freedom 250” is just the tip of the iceberg, and holding Burgum’s feet to the fire is the only way we’ll expose corruption hiding just under the surface and ensure our national parks and public lands are protected for generations to come. Make no mistake, censoring and erasing America’s shared history, which is an integral part of our nation’s parks and public lands, is a precursor to dangerous Doug Burgum’s ultimate fail-by-design plan to sell them off.
Speaking of this administration’s constant stream of grift and corruption, former Trump Interior Secretary David Bernhardt has renewed his calling: shilling and lobbying for mining corporations. USA Rare Earth hired Trump’s most conflicted former Interior Secretary’s new lobbying shop, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and just as easy as you please, the Trump administration took an equity stake in the company. The biggest beneficiaries? Trump mega-donors, who were allowed to buy into the company in a private round just before the stake was announced. In this way, Trump and Burgum accomplish multiple goals at once: they keep the corporate socialism gravy train running for mining companies, and they give their donors an early taste via insider trading.
Former Interior Secretary Bernhardt’s conflicts and corruption are well documented, and he was thought to be one of the nation’s worst Interior Department heads in history until secretive Doug Burgum took the helm. Between billionaire diva Burgum’s known conflicts, the open air corruption, and the complete lack of transparency, this cheerleading cabinet secretary is making a former industry lobbyist look like a boy scout by comparison (see flip-flopping Doug deny climate change here), and it’s all at the expense of our nation’s history, parks, public lands, and outdoor heritage.
Elsewhere this week, civil rights leaders across the spectrum were once again forced to condemn Trump and Burgum’s anti-American mass censorship campaign. Martin Luther King III called out Burgum’s National Park Service after the NPS altered the museum home of civil rights activist Medgar Evers. Evers, the NAACP’s first field secretary in the state of Mississippi, was assassinated in his own driveway by white supremacist and Ku Klux Klan member Byron De La Beckwith. Under orders from this administration, NPS staffers changed the brochures at the museum so that Beckwith wouldn’t be called a racist. Not content to sanitize the racist murder of a civil rights leader, Burgum’s Interior also took down the pride flag from the Stonewall monument in New York, the only national park site dedicated to LGBTQ+ history. Interior won’t say when they took it down, and they won’t say why.
Parks and Public Lands in the News:
Safety and Preparedness
CNN: Trump forges ahead with plans for 250-foot arch despite concerns on the ground and in the air
“President Donald Trump wants to build an arch, and he wants it to be the biggest in the world. But even as he suggests he’ll sign an executive order for its construction, the project is facing pushback and will likely hit legal hurdles before it can proceed.”
SF Gate: Sweeping new rules restrict nearly all aspects of national park communications
“The situation ‘exemplifies the lack of trust with the field managers, and ignorance of how parks need to communicate regularly with visitors, communities and stakeholders,’ he told SFGATE. ‘It’s unprecedented and a mess.’”
National Parks Conservation Association: Parks Group Demands Halt to National Park Fee Changes Targeting Non-Residents After Weeks of Confusion and Disorder
“‘The Park Service is stretched to the breaking point after losing a quarter of permanent positions since January 2025, including the very people needed to implement this policy. Requiring fee collectors to verify residency at already congested parks is worsening delays and causing chaos.’ - Emily Douce, Deputy Vice President for Government Affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA).”
Privatization and Sell-Offs
The Fulcrum: Trump’s Playbook to Loot the American Commons
“To the Trump administration, however, these federal protections are an inconvenient roadblock to liquidating and plundering our public lands. Now, they are draining resources and morale from the parks, which may be a deliberate effort to degrade America’s best idea.”
CNBC: Trump administration equity stakes pose risks to U.S. companies and markets
“The Trump administration’s portfolio of equity stakes in U.S. companies has reached a scale that is unprecedented outside economic crisis or wartime. The administration has taken stakes or has agreements to do so with at least 10 companies, most of which are publicly traded. The government announced its latest investment, USA Rare Earth, at the end of January.”
Community Impacts
The Guardian: ‘So shameful’: backlash as US national monuments conform to Trump’s rewrite of history
“But on 22 January, National Park Service (NPS) workers used hand tools to pry off 34 panels to comply with a presidential executive order designed to reframe the national narrative. The panels that highlighted the lives of people enslaved by George Washington when Philadelphia was the US capital in the 1790s are now in storage.”
The Hill: MLK III accuses National Park Service of ‘sanitizing’ history
“Martin Luther King III, the son of civil rights advocate the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., accused the National Park Service on Thursday of ‘sanitizing history’ amid reported changes at a Mississippi house museum commemorating civil rights activist Medgar Evers.”
Axios: Pride flag removed from Stonewall monument
“The removal comes amid a broader federal effort to scrub LGBTQ+ history from government sites and single out transgender people, raising fears among LGBTQ+ advocates that their community faces erasure from public life.”
National Parks Conservation Association: Parks Group Calls for Pride Flags to Remain at Stonewall National Monument
“‘As the only national park site dedicated to LGBTQ+ history, and at a time where history and science are being removed from our parks, there is no greater time to reinforce the significant meaning of the Pride flag and all it represents at Stonewall.’”
Stories on the Trail
@Public_Citizen: There’s no need to be searching for dark conspiracies of foreign influence. The Trump admin is giving into foreign influence right before our eyes. Watch our co-president @Rob_Weissman testify before the House on this improper foreign influence.
@RepDexterOR: Today, in a House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, I exposed Freedom 250 for what it really is—a scam. They are using taxpayer dollars not to celebrate America’s history, but erase it. I will not be silent. I will continue to expose this corrupt organization because working families deserve to know how their taxpayer dollars are being spent.
@Rep_Magaziner: The Trump administration is removing exhibits about slavery & references to massacres of Native Americans from national parks. This week I joined @HNRDems colleagues to sound the alarm about this dangerous attempt to rewrite our history, and the risks it creates for our future.
@NewYorkStateAG: The Trump administration’s decision to remove the Pride Flag from the Stonewall National Monument is despicable. This administration’s bigotry will not erase the history of Stonewall.
@americanhuntersanglers: 🚨URGENT: Congress is about to greenlight a toxic mine next to America’s most popular wilderness. Tag your senator. Go to their social pages and make comments. Call their office.
The Crisis Continues:
The crisis continues to escalate across America’s 640-million-acre public lands system and is poised to get worse after Trump’s spending package, passed by Congressional Republicans, slashed some $267 million of previously committed funding for national parks. The National Park Service has lost nearly a quarter of its permanent workforce since Trump took office, with some parks now operating without superintendents and at half-staff during peak visitation. Between Trump, DOGE, and Republicans’ draconian budget cuts, hiring freezes, and workforce reductions, the staffing shortages are forcing scientists, park rangers, and other safety personnel to clean toilets and pick up garbage instead of conducting critical work like ongoing maintenance and supporting visitor safety.
Save Our Parks documents and exposes conditions across America’s federal park and public lands system through monitoring reports, visitor testimonials, and accountability research. The campaign maintains comprehensive documentation through its website at SaveOurParks.us.
To speak with Save Our Parks spokesperson Jayson O’Neill, email jayson@focalpointstrategygroup.com.
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