Trump administration targets National Park Service gift shops over DEI rules

The Trump administration is expanding its fight against diversity, equity and inclusion to the National Park Service this week.

The Department of the Interior sent out a memo last month ordering gift shops, bookstores and concession stands to remove any item they deemed objectionable by Dec. 19, according to WSB-TV.

Park concessioners and cooperating organizations must remove any materials that do not meet the standards of President Trump’s Executive Order 14151. The goal, the agency said, is to create “neutral spaces that serve all visitors.”

Georgia is home to several sites controlled and maintained by the National Park Service, including Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park and Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park.

Alan Spears, senior director for cultural resources at the National Parks Conservation Association, said in a statement that the move goes against the National Park Service’s mission to educate visitors.

“The National Parks Conservation Association opposes this latest move from the administration because we, like the majority of Americans, support telling the full American story at our parks. That means acknowledging hard truths about slavery, climate change, and other topics that challenge us as a nation. From the giftshop to the trailhead, we support the Park Service’s longstanding efforts to bring us closer together as Americans,” read the statement.

In a column in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Columnist Nedra Rhone said the history of Georgia parks is being threatened by a “ham-handed move” to erase the past.

“This feels like a threat to Georgia NPS sites like Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park and MLK Jr. National Historical Park and Memorial, which embody some of the most horrific moments in American history,” she wrote in the column.