Executive Order 14253: Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History

Executive order on federal historical sites and the Smithsonian. Section 4, “Restoring Truth in American History,” directs the Secretary of the Interior to “determine whether, since January 1, 2020, public monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties within the Department of the Interior’s jurisdiction have been removed or changed to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history”; to “take action to reinstate the pre-existing monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties”; and to “take action, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to ensure that all public monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties within the Department of the Interior’s jurisdiction do not contain descriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.” Section 3 is headed “Restoring Independence Hall” and funds park infrastructure. The order names no panel, photograph or trail, and does not mention public lands. The order’s title is the primary document: it names its own action as restoration and positions the existing record as the condition requiring correction.

Corrected 2026-10-01. This record said the order directs federal agencies “to remove materials deemed inconsistent with the administration’s framing of American history from national parks, public lands, and federal institutions.” The order says what is quoted above; it does not mention public lands. NAMING MACHINE’s correction of 2026-09-30 and RECARVED’s of 2026-10-01 retracted the same description.

Correction record (2026-07-09)

This record previously cited the order as “The White House, January 2025,” with no EO number and no Federal Register document number.

Signed 2025-03-27. Published 2025-04-03. The stated date was wrong by roughly three months. Verified against the Federal Register JSON API (documents/2025-05838.json: executive_order_number: 14253, signing_date: 2025-03-27, publication_date: 2025-04-03) and the govinfo mirror (HTTP 200).

An executive order always carries both an EO number and an FR document number. Neither was filed. The record named a real document and made it unretrievable.

naming-machine.mdx and postponed.mdx (both published) reference this record; naming-machine.mdx once carried the wrong “January 2025” date in its docket; its 2026-07-09 correction fixed it, and the docket now reads March 27, 2025 (signed) and April 3, 2025 (published).