A Bush-appointed federal judge handed the Trump administration a humiliating loss on Presidents Day, ordering the restoration of a slavery exhibit and citing George Orwell’s 1984 in her ruling.
U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe ruled Monday that an exhibit about nine people enslaved by George Washington must be reinstated at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia after the Trump administration tore it down last month.
“As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s 1984 now existed, with its motto ‘Ignorance is Strength,’ this Court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims—to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts,” Rufe wrote. “It does not.”
The National Park Service removed the exhibit in January after Trump’s executive order on “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” instructed the Interior Department to ensure parks and monuments don’t display anything that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”
News cameras captured staff taking down the exhibit, with one park employee telling the Philadelphia Inquirer, “I’m just following my orders.”
The exhibit sat at the President’s House site—where George and Martha Washington lived with nine enslaved people when Philadelphia briefly served as the nation’s capital.
Rufe ordered all materials restored to their original condition while a lawsuit from Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker challenges the removal’s legality.
This isn’t the administration’s only attempt to whitewash history. They’ve also removed a pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument in New York City, erased references to transgender people from the Park Service’s Stonewall website, and scrubbed mentions of Native American dispossession from Grand Canyon exhibits. Roadside displays about climate change and pollution have been flagged for removal too.
“We are capable of hearing about our tragedies and our victories, and this systematic erasure should concern everyone in our country,” said Kristen Brengel, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow celebrated the ruling Monday night, making sure to note Rufe’s Republican credentials: “Happy Presidents’ Day, Philadelphia. You are getting your history put back up by court order at the President’s House.”