May 20, 2025 — Timeline — Standing Record

May 20

Interior Secretary Burgum ordered National Park Service to review and remove public content deemed to disparage Americans

On May 20, 2025, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued Secretary's Order 3431, implementing President Trump's Executive Order 14253 and directing the National Park Service and other Interior land-management bureaus to review all public-facing interpretive content and remove anything that "inappropriately disparages Americans" or, for natural features, emphasizes matters unrelated to their beauty and grandeur. Under the order, the Park Service removed or flagged signs, exhibits, and materials on slavery, immigration, and climate change at sites nationwide, with an initial content-removal deadline of September 17, 2025. Interior also posted signage inviting visitors to report content they viewed as negative about past or living Americans.

May 20

FTC issued sweeping records demand to media-rating firm NewsGuard following chairman's public criticism

The Federal Trade Commission under Chairman Andrew Ferguson issued a 21-page, 31-item Civil Investigative Demand to NewsGuard, which publishes journalist-produced credibility ratings for news outlets, on May 20, 2025, seeking internal memos, methodology documents, subscriber lists, and communications dating back to the company's 2018 founding. The demand followed months of public criticism from Ferguson, who as an FTC commissioner in November 2024 accused NewsGuard of running "collusive ad boycotts" against conservative and independent media.

Targeting critics with government power

May 20

Laramie County Sheriff Kozak signed ICE 287(g) agreements without county commission approval or public notice

Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak signed three Section 287(g) agreements deputizing his office for federal immigration enforcement -- the first taking effect May 20, 2025, the other two about a month later -- without submitting the decision to the Laramie County Board of County Commissioners or following Wyoming's public rulemaking process. The sheriff's office went on to spend an estimated $75,000 on the resulting program between September 2025 and January 2026 without written commission authorization, and 287(g)-certified deputies later joined ICE and the Wyoming Highway Patrol in operations such as a December 22, 2025 stop-and-check campaign on Wyoming Highway 214. The ACLU of Wyoming and three local plaintiffs sued Kozak in May 2026, arguing he lacked authority to bind the county without the commissioners' approval.