The White House has rescinded President Donald Trump’s pick for National Park Service director, pulling the nomination of hospitality industry executive Scott Socha more than two months after submitting it to the Senate.
Officials provided no explanation for Monday’s withdrawal of Socha’s nomination.
Socha currently manages the parks and resorts operations for hospitality firm Delaware North.
Environmental advocates had opposed his February nomination, arguing he lacked the government experience necessary for the position.
Delaware North previously engaged in legal action against the National Park Service starting in 2015, ultimately reaching a $12 million settlement in 2019 while Trump was in his first presidential term.
The National Park Service remains under the leadership of Jessica Bowron, the agency’s comptroller serving in an acting director capacity.
The agency operates under the U.S. Interior Department’s jurisdiction.
The current administration has pursued changes to public spaces, museums and parks through measures that civil rights organizations have criticized as reversing years of social advancement.
Shortly after assuming office, Trump issued an executive directive addressing what he characterized as the proliferation of “anti-American ideology.”
The directive instructed the Interior Department to restore federal parks, monuments and memorials that had been “removed or changed in the last years to perpetuate a false revision of history.”
Following the executive order, the Interior Department announced a comprehensive review of all interpretive materials at national parks, including the informational plaques and displays that provide context about historical sites and events.
The Washington Post reported that federal officials have directed national parks to eliminate numerous signs and exhibits addressing slavery and the historical treatment of Native Americans by European settlers.
In one instance where National Park Service personnel removed a slavery display in January from a Philadelphia historical location where George Washington previously resided, a federal judge mandated the Trump administration restore the exhibit, which the agency subsequently did.
