Five days into his Presidency, Donald Trump has made enemies. But on day one he made a critical error by pissing off the National Parks Services. For a man obsessed with Twitter and his public image, the humble federal agency might become his most dogged opponent.
Last week, the NPS Twitter account retweeted some anti-Trump sentiments. All Department of Interior bureaus were told to “immediately cease use of government Twitter accounts,” by their petty, thin-skinned leader, though use of those accounts was eventually restored after a public apology. What a fool you’ve been, Mr. Trump.
Today, Badlands National Park took to Twitter, seemingly to decry Trump’s irresponsible and counterfactual stance on climate change, by quoting from the “Climate Change Facts” section of the National Wildlife Federation’s website. A few moments later the account tweeted again, but this time seemingly from the heart.
Climate change isn’t up for debate, but there have been a lot of already-answered questions revisited lately, like “Are Muslims people?” “Is it OK to punch a Nazi?” and “Is our own President really going to lie right to our faces every damn day for the next four years?” (Yes to all of the above.)
An intern is probably getting fired for these tweets, but seeing has how Trump froze EPA grants today and is intent on clamping down dissent starting at the federal level, every little bit of resistance helps. Here’s our jobs page buddy, let us know if you see anything you like.
Update 1/24/17 5:28pm EST: The Badlands National Park tweets about climate change—a real thing that is really happening—have disappeared, though they managed to fire one more off before someone pulled the plug on them. Who could have predicted that?
Below is a screengrab of all four tweets. We’ve reached out (again) to Badlands for comment and will update if we find out why objectively true statements largely quoted from another agency are being deleted, although I think we already know the reason.
And seriously pal, we’re hiring.
Update 1/24/17 8:20pm EST: The plot thickens! A Buzzfeed News reporter who managed to get a statement from the National Parks Service was told the completely factual and now-removed tweets were posted by a former employee “who was not currently authorized” to use the account. A Quartz reporter was told different but not necessarily conflicting information. Neither statement mentions Badlands being forced to remove the tweets. We’ll update if we hear a third, different thing, or anything definitive.