On February 16th, 2026, there was an exhibit about nine people by George Washington that must be restored at his former home in Philadelphia after President Donald Trump’s administration took it down last month, and the federal judge ruled that on President’s Day, the federal holiday honored Washington’s legacy.

The city of Philadelphia was sued in January after the National Park Service removed the panels from Independence National Historical Park.

This removal came in response to a Trump executive order “restoring truth and sanity to American history” and to the nation’s museums, parks, and landmarks directing the Interior Department to those sites that don’t display elements that are “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”

U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe ruled on Monday that the materials must be restored in their original condition while a lawsuit challenging the removal’s legality plays out. The judge then prohibited Trump officials from installing replacements that would explain history differently.

An appointed Republican President George W. Bush began a written order with a quote from George Orwell’s dystopian novel, which compared the Trump administration to the book’s regime called the Ministry of Truth. This revised the historical records and aligned with its own narrative.

The Interior Department didn’t immediately respond to the request for comment on the ruling, which came while government offices were closed for the federal holiday.

The judge didn’t provide a timeline for when the exhibit must be restored. The federal officials can appeal the ruling.

At the Stonewall National Monument, they took down a rainbow flag where bar patrons rebelled against a police raid. The administration has also removed transgender people from its webpage about the monument, despite several trans women of color being the key figures in the uprising.

There have been many people feeling outraged about this, and some even accused President Donald Trump of “whitewashing history” after the National Park Service removed an exhibit on slavery.

Some people wanted to stop this display’s permanent removal, and the city of Philadelphia sued the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and acting National Park Service Director Jessica Bowron.

The Trump administration prepared to celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary, which focused on a more positive telling of the American story, and they put pressure on federal institutions, which included the Smithsonian, to tell a version of history that was less focused on race.

Critics condemned the removals as some kind of approval that the Trump administration seeks to erase unflattering aspects of American history.

The department still hasn’t answered as to what they are going to replace the slavery part of the exhibit with when it is removed.