National Parks Trump Administration
FILE - President Donald Trump holds a poster as Energy Secretary Chris Wright, from left, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin, obstructed, and Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., listen, June 4, 2026, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington.
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The 250th anniversary of U.S. independence was just months away when National Park Service employees received a directive from Washington. Maintenance projects approved this year at sites across the nation were being relegated to a new “low priority” list. Work wanted by the White House was taking precedence, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity and documents obtained by The Associated Press. That included the botched repairs to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Many of the administration-backed projects have since advanced. The unnamed officials said almost all of about 1,500 maintenance and other projects on the low priority list as of last month are expected to go undone.
A new AP-NORC/USA Facts poll finds that Americans are more skeptical of government information than they were a few years ago, with majorities now saying they have little or no trust in federal government information about elections, foreign affairs or the environment. Mistrust of government information has grown since 2024, just before President Donald Trump won a second presidential term, but it’s also higher than it was at the end of Trump’s first term. This underscores how his recent attempts to dismantle parts of the federal bureaucracy may have affected public confidence in the executive branch, particularly among Democrats.
