Trump administration ups security at President’s House after exhibit swap, citing ‘safety concerns’

After quietly installing new a exhibit at the President’s House overnight this week, President Donald Trump’s administration is upping security at the embattled site on Independence Mall.

George Washington’s Philadelphia mansion is flanked by three mobile surveillance trailers. And in an unusual deployment, U.S. Park Police officers in black uniforms guarded the site alongside National Park Service Rangers who are a familiar fixture at Independence National Historical Park.

Security is necessary for reducing the risk to the park’s staff and visitors following the installation of new panels to replace the slavery exhibit the Trump administration removed in January, the department said in a notice of intent to make an urgent purchase of two surveillance trailers published Thursday on a federal database.

“The replacement of these interpretation panels is creating a lot of security concerns... because it requires 24/7 monitoring to ensure the panel replacement is completed, and prevent and limit potential damages outside of normal park operations,” the Department of Interior said in its justification to not review multiple bids.

» READ MORE: What’s changed at the President’s House with the Trump administration’s new exhibit

The Interior Department intends to purchase the surveillance equipment from Verkada, Inc., a California-based security systems company, through distributor Carahsoft Technology Corp.

The published notice does not include a cost estimate but indicates it will be more than $50,000.

Park employees installed two surveillance trailers on the west side of the site last week, which they said were for MLB All-Star game events nearby. In the early morning after the game, the Trump administration swapped the President’s House exhibit.

The two trailers remained at the “very political sensitive President’s House Site,” as the Interior Department refers to it in new public records.

Park Police officers installed a third on the east side of the site Wednesday morning.

The presence of Park Police at the site is also a notable change.

The federal law enforcement agency was established by Washington in 1791 to protect federal property in the District of Columbia. It has since been absorbed into the Interior Department, but remains located in the New York City, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco metropolitan areas to “investigate and detain persons suspected of committing offenses against the United States,” according to the National Park Service.

“Officers also carry out services for many notable events conducted in the national parks,” according to Park service.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum placed the force under his direct control in 2025. And the administration has been pushing to hire new recruits as part of an effort to make Park Police “the premier law enforcement agency in D.C.,” the Washington Post reported.

The National Park Service’s budget justification for this upcoming fiscal year notes that U.S. Park Police are tasked with enhancing security at “iconic national parks” such as at the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall “to address intrusions, vulnerabilities, and potential terrorist threats.”

But until recently, there has not been a regular U.S. Park Police presence at the President’s House, which is steps from the Liberty Bell, since the Trump administration began scrutinizing the site last summer.

The president instructed the Interior Department to review all national park displays and flag those that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.” The Interior Department’s purchase notice notes that security of the site is important to comply with the order, or else the “White House will elevate issues.”

The Philadelphia Police Department is not aware of any credible threats to the President’s House, spokesperson Sergeant Eric Gripp said, but “Federal agencies are also not required to notify us of arrests, citations, staffing decisions, or other enforcement activity.”

An Interior Department spokesperson declined to answer questions about the Park Police deployment, surveillance system, or the risk assessment.

Brian Wallace has been visiting the site nearly every day since January to post protest signs on the walls that once displayed an exhibit about the nine people Washington enslaved at the executive mansion.

Park staff would remove the poster almost every night — he even uses masking tape to make the task easier, he said — but no one bothered the 65-year-old.

But Tuesday, he was approached by a group of officers wearing black, unlike the gray-and-green uniforms of the Park rangers he is accustomed to seeing.

After taping five or six posters, a U.S. Park Police officer instructed him to stop.

When Wallace invoked his First Amendment right to free speech, the situation got “a lot more confrontation.”

“A bunch more officers arrived,” he said. “At that point I was threatened with arrest.”

Wallace eventually left without an arrest or citation, but Sandra Shachar wasn’t so lucky the next day.

Shachar, 72, has been taping news articles about the litigation surrounding the President’s House since January too. But Wednesday, hours after the Trump administration swapped the exhibit, she was fined $305 for vandalism by two park rangers.

“I think it highlights the state that we’re in as a country, where our right to free speech is now impeded,” the local psychologist said.

And a couple hours later, park rangers did not allow Michael Coard, a leader of Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, a group that has fought to develop and protect the President’s House exhibit, to deliver remarks from the site.

The rangers said they would cite speakers if the event proceeded within the site’s parameters.

“I gotta tell you, I’ve been doing this since June of 2002,” Coard said to the officer. “Never heard of it.”

The group moved closer to the Liberty Bell Center’s entrance, and the rangers allowed the event to take place.

Later Wednesday night, the President’s House Coalition, comprised of a group of advocates and stakeholders who have been working to protect the site, told its Instagram followers to “be mindful of Trump’s administration’s tactics” and the “heavy presence” of federal officers at the site.

“Don’t let them bait you into getting arrested,” the activist group account said. “We’d fight to get you out of jail *laughing emoji* but we’d rather spend out energy on fighting against Trump’s administration.”