National Park Service calls 2020 George Floyd protests ‘riots’ | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

Throughout his second term in the White House, President Donald Trump has signed several executive orders targeting the government agency overseeing the country’s 63 national parks.

The 2026 budget that Congress passed at the start of July includes over $1.2 billion in budget cuts to the National Parks Service (NPS), while an executive order that Trump signed in March instructs different agencies to remove signs that display “any improper partisan ideology” or “perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history.”

As a result, visitors to national parks across the country have begun seeing laminated posters asking them to “let us know” if they spot any signage that is “negative about either past or living Americans.”

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‘Beautify the nation’s capital and reinstate pre-existing statues’: NPS

In the latest move to meet the Trump administration in its battle against anything that may be perceived as “woke,” the NPS has begun reinstalling the bronze statue of Confederate General Albert Pike in Washington, D.C.

The statue of Pike, who represented several Native American tribes in land claims but ultimately decided to serve the Confederacy in the Civil War, was spray-painted red and toppled when protests against the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd broke out in the capital on Juneteenth. It was the last standing Confederate statue in Washington and, as part of the then-reckoning on the country’s past, was never rebuilt.

“The National Park Service announced today that it will restore and reinstall the bronze statue of Albert Pike, which was toppled and vandalized during riots in June 2020,” the agency wrote on Aug. 4. “The restoration aligns with federal responsibilities under historic preservation law as well as recent executive orders to beautify the nation’s capital and reinstate preexisting statues.”

The language of “riots” adds partisan interpretation to the protests that took place throughout the summer of 2020 after white Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin killed Floyd by kneeling on his neck for over nine minutes while arresting him over a counterfeit bill used in a store.

Chauvin is currently serving a 22-year sentence for murder, while the incident prompted protests over longstanding racial inequality and police treatment of African Americans.

The NPS published this photo of the toppled Albert Pike statue.

Image source&colon; National Park Service

‘Site preparations to repair the statue will begin shortly’

While overwhelmingly peaceful, the protests between May and July 2020 saw occasional outbreaks of violence and property destruction that were condemned by city and state leaders at the time.

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The NPS press release states that the 27-foot statue made of bronze and marble was kept in storage and is “currently undergoing restoration by the National Park Service’s Historic Preservation Training Center.” The goal is to have it installed in the original space on 3rd and D Streets NW in Judiciary Square by October 2025.

“This action supports both the Executive Order on Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful and the Executive Order on Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History, which direct federal agencies to protect public monuments and present a full and accurate picture of the American past,” the NPS wrote further. “Site preparation to repair the statue’s damaged masonry plinth will begin shortly, with crews repairing broken stone, mortar joints, and mounting elements.”