The War on History
The Trump administration wants Americans to sanitize their past.
David A. Canton
A few weeks ago, I took eleven University of Florida students to Washington, DC and visited the home of Frederick Douglass (1818-1895). The National Park ranger on duty, a white male, gave an outstanding tour and interpretation of Douglass’s life. His story highlighted Douglass’s triumphs—but also mentioned how Douglass, at 59 years old, worked to stay in shape just in case he had to physically confront slaveholders. Should the park ranger have left out the second statement, leaving visitors with a faulty understanding of Douglass’s life?
This was the first time I heard that Douglass remained vigilant about protecting himself from slaveholders long after his escape from slavery. The statement reminded me of the precarity of Black citizenship in late 19th-century America.
Hundreds of park rangers across the US provide visitors with complex historical narratives, rather than watered-down, feel-good and sanitized versions. However, on March 27, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” declaring, in effect, a War on History.
According to Trump, “Over the past decade Americans have witnesses a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.” This statement distorts the purpose of history by implying it is just the study of “objective facts.” In reality, history is an interpretation of facts. During the last century, historians have created narratives driven by an interpretation of evidence and committed to presenting a perspective that recognizes the progress and continuing struggle of the nation to uphold its democratic principles.
Beginning in the 1960s, social history or history “from the bottom up” emerged as a field in American history that centered the stories of African Americans, women, labor, Hispanics, Asian Americans, and Native Americans. As a result, museums and K-12 textbooks incorporated these new interpretations to provide students a nuanced and complicated history rather than a history that just teach dates—and fails to foster critical thinking.
Prior to the sixties, the most dominant fields in American history were presidential, diplomatic, and military history. This “top down” history reflected the perspectives of white elite males who represented a minority view in American history. The “top down” approach failed to examine the impact of their decisions on ordinary Americans and neglected how US citizens organized to resist policies, for example, by protesting the Vietnam war or forcing the federal government to eradicate Jim Crow segregation in the South.
Trump’s War on History is an effort to sanitize American history and promote the uncritical celebration of American progress and exceptionalism in classrooms, museums, and parks. During the Black History Month celebration at the White House, for instance, Trump encouraged educators to sponsor events that promoted a “patriotic history.” The White House insists that left-wing “woke” scholars have highjacked the historical profession. Rather than teach “objective facts,” Trump claims, university faculty are indoctrinating students with anti-American ideology. Yet, teaching only subjects framed as American progress and triumph is its own form of indoctrination, because it does not encourage critical thinking.
The Trump administration contends American history has been dissolved by a “distorted narrative” that “fosters a sense of shame” and refuses to highlight American progress. According to Trump, the Biden administration “advanced this corrosive ideology” and “pressured” Park Rangers at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia to interpret the Declaration of Independence from their own racial identity. This is incorrect.
All historians agree that when the founding fathers stated “all men are created equal,” they meant white, male property-owners, the only demographic allowed to vote (in the 18th century the term “men” included white women who were free but not citizens). In 1776, “men” excluded Black people and Native Americans because the architects of the US Constitution viewed Black people and Native Americans as inferior races.
Another feature of the president’s War on History is removing the “influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology” from the Smithsonian Institution. According to Trump’s executive order, it used to be “a symbol of American excellence and a global icon of cultural achievement.” The National Museum of African American History and Culture (part of the Smithsonian Institution) opened in 2016.
I have visited the museum four times. Far from being influenced by a “race-centered ideology,” it presents an accurate depiction of African American history and culture.
Museums are created to educate visitors about the nation’s triumphs and contradictions to make them appreciate the past and think about improving the future. The inaugural director, Dr. Lonnie Bunch III, worked in bi-partisan fashion to ensure the museum presented an interpretation that demonstrates Black progress, resistance, and the continuing struggle for racial equality. Despite Dr. Bunch’s exceptional bi-partisan work, Trump believes the museum has been influenced by “left wing-ideology.”
“Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” is an ideological attack on academic freedom and the historical profession. Trump’s War on History is designed to promote an American history that excluded most Americans and praised the “good old days” of the 1950s. But those days are never coming back because time machines do not exist.
Most American students avoid studying history because they think it is just the memorization of names and dates. And most students who love American history have not been exposed to a critical interpretation of the past. Next year, the nation will celebrate its 250th anniversary—and mark the 100-year celebration of African American History Month. At this crucial moment, the president’s War on History will promote an interpretation of American progress that is ahistorical and disingenuous. Engaging with history in our communities and schools, including organizing reading groups, are ways to resist this distortion of our past. All Americans must have critical and truthful discussions about our history.