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Trump's American History Revolution
Trump’s American History Revolution
As the 250th anniversary of America’s independence approaches, the president is moving to put his stamp on how the nation’s story is told, in Washington and beyond.
President Trump and Melania Trump at Mount Rushmore on July 3, 2020, where the president delivered a speech decrying the vandalism of statues during racial justice protests. Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times
By Jennifer Schuessler
April 19, 2025, 5:01 a.m. ET
President Trump is not known as a student of history. He hasn’t summoned historians to the White House for free-ranging dinner conversation, like Barack Obama, or boasted of the fat biographies he devours, in the manner of George W. Bush’s reading contest with his adviser Karl Rove.
During his first campaign, Mr. Trump drew mockery for a plaque at one of his golf courses commemorating a Civil War battle that never happened. For all his appeals to American greatness, he rarely extols the founding fathers, and once claimed he would have crushed a combined ticket of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
But Mr. Trump keenly understands the power of history. And since returning to the Oval Office, he has moved forcefully to advance his vision of it — and to reshape federal cultural institutions that shape the way the American story is told.
Last month, in an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” he blasted what he sees as a dangerous “revisionist movement” that seeks to undermine “the remarkable achievements of the United States” and its “unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness.”
{snip}
Jennifer Schuessler is a reporter for the Culture section of The Times who covers intellectual life and the world of ideas.
As the 250th anniversary of America’s independence approaches, the president is moving to put his stamp on how the nation’s story is told, in Washington and beyond.
President Trump and Melania Trump at Mount Rushmore on July 3, 2020, where the president delivered a speech decrying the vandalism of statues during racial justice protests. Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times
By Jennifer Schuessler
April 19, 2025, 5:01 a.m. ET
President Trump is not known as a student of history. He hasn’t summoned historians to the White House for free-ranging dinner conversation, like Barack Obama, or boasted of the fat biographies he devours, in the manner of George W. Bush’s reading contest with his adviser Karl Rove.
During his first campaign, Mr. Trump drew mockery for a plaque at one of his golf courses commemorating a Civil War battle that never happened. For all his appeals to American greatness, he rarely extols the founding fathers, and once claimed he would have crushed a combined ticket of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
But Mr. Trump keenly understands the power of history. And since returning to the Oval Office, he has moved forcefully to advance his vision of it — and to reshape federal cultural institutions that shape the way the American story is told.
Last month, in an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” he blasted what he sees as a dangerous “revisionist movement” that seeks to undermine “the remarkable achievements of the United States” and its “unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness.”
{snip}
Jennifer Schuessler is a reporter for the Culture section of The Times who covers intellectual life and the world of ideas.