President Trump’s fight to reshape how American history is told has hit another hurdle.

Last week, a federal judge temporarily blocked his year-old executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” It ordered the Interior Secretary to remove from national parks and historic sites content that “inappropriately disparages Americans past or living.”

Months later, federal employees took crowbars and peeled away an exhibit about nine African-Americans President George Washington had enslaved at the nation’s first executive mansion in Philadelphia.

The removal sparked bipartisan condemnation and a separate lengthy legal battle that has wound its way to a federal court of appeals.

Some of the exhibit has since been restored, but a lot is still missing.

Lawyer and activist Michael Coard spent years fighting to create a site telling the stories of the people enslaved by George Washington in Philadelphia.

Henry Larson

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Henry Larson

Michael Coard is a lawyer and activist who advocated for the exhibit’s creation. It opened in 2010.

“It was the grand opening of the first slave memorial of its kind on federal property in the history of the U.S. We thought it would last forever. But 15 years later, the destruction came,” Coard said.

He and others want the full exhibit restored by the Fourth of July, when people will descend on historic Philadelphia to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding.

NPR’s Adrian Florido spoke with Coard, attorney and tour guide Raina Yancey and others at the President’s House in Philadelphia to understand the deadline pressure activists now face, and how they’re still telling the story of Washington’s enslaved workers as the legal battle wages on.

Listen to the full story by clicking the blue play button above.

ATLANTA (AP) — Days before the U.S. Senate runoff in Georgia, President Donald Trump has endorsed U.S. Rep. Mike Collins over former football coach Derek Dooley, putting his stamp of approval on another loyalist who some conservatives believe could be a risky bet in November.

The Republican candidates are competing Tuesday for the chance to take on Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in one of the most closely watched campaigns in the November midterm elections. Collins has positioned himself as a stalwart ally of Trump and his “Make America Great Again” movement, and the president said in his announcement early Sunday on social media that the trucking company owner and second-term congressman “has been with me from the very beginning” and is a ”true friend, fighter, and WARRIOR.”

Dooley, a political newcomer, is backed by outgoing Gov. Brian Kemp, who has clashed with Trump in the past. “I don’t know Derek Dooley, and neither does anyone else, but he seems like a nice person,” Trump wrote, while noting that Dooley did not vote in 2016 or 2020, when Trump was on the ballot. Dooley has acknowledged going nearly two decades without voting but says he did vote for Trump in 2024.

Collins led Dooley in the May 19 primary but neither surpassed 40%, leaving many Republican votes up for grabs. Trump’s endorsement has proved powerful as he shapes a party identity that is increasingly indistinguishable from his own.

“Everybody knows that I do best with the MAGA base,” Collins said on primary night. “It’s because they know I’ve always been with President Trump.”

Still, the president’s choice puts him at odds with more traditional Republicans, including Kemp. The endorsement is reminiscent of Trump’s decision to back Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton before his victory over U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in the state’s recent primary runoff.

Dooley responded to Trump’s decision by saying Georgia voters want “a political outsider” rather than “typical D.C. politicians like Mike Collins.” In an X post, Dooley expressed confidence that he would win.

Collins has embraced Trump since his first campaign for Congress in 2022, and he has echoed the president’s false claims that his 2020 defeat to Democrat Joe Biden was fraudulent. Collins sponsored the Laken Riley Act, a 2025 law that requires immigrants be detained when charged with certain crimes. Republicans believe the issue damages Ossoff because he initially voted against the measure before supporting it after Trump returned to the White House.

Dooley — and Kemp as his top surrogate — argue that a first-time candidate has a better shot to defeat Ossoff, the only Democratic senator facing voters in a state Trump carried in 2024.

Kemp, who once drew Trump’s ire for refusing to help overturn Biden’s victory, was the top choice of Senate Republican leaders looking for an Ossoff challenger. Kemp recruited Dooley, a childhood friend, to run instead.

The governor points to a trio of first-term Republican senators — Montana’s Tim Sheehy, Pennsylvania’s Dave McCormick and Ohio’s Bernie Moreno — who defeated Democratic incumbents in 2024 running as outsiders who still aligned with the president.

Dooley’s argument is matched against Trump’s winning streak inside the party. In a matter of weeks, Trump has celebrated victories over Republicans who did not pass his test of loyalty.

Cornyn lost to Paxton, U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost to Ed Gallrein, U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana failed to make a runoff and several Indiana state senators were defeated by challengers.

Dooley has told voters he will “work with President Trump but fight for you.” He also emphasizes that Republicans have not won a U.S. Senate race in Georgia since 2016.

Collins walks no such tightrope, and he still insists that he can have wider appeal in the fall.

“You don’t beat Jon Ossoff by having no record,” he said. “You win by having a record of results.”

Reporting assignments can often lead to unexpected joys and lessons. That was the case when NPR’s Natalie Escobar and Ava Berger were sent on the road to tag along with three teenage boys competing in the World Series of Birding. The teens had 24 hours to crisscross New Jersey and tally up the number of bird species they spotted. For this week’s Reporter’s Notebook we hear from Escobar and Berger about how the assignment was both challenging and illuminating.