Donald Trump’s War on History

Donald Trump during his inauguration at the US Capitol on January 20. Kevin Lamarque/Reuters/AP

Authoritarianism cannot exist with free thought. It must dominate the societal discourse and prevent debate. That means it must also dictate history. The Nazis knew this. In April 1933, two months after Hitler became Germany’s chancellor, Joseph Goebbels, his propaganda chief, proclaimed that “the year 1789” would be “expunged from history”—meaning that the animating ideas of the French Revolution, such as liberty, civic equality, and human rights, were to be crushed. Germany, under Hitler’s rule, was to be tied in narrative to a millennium that skipped recent European history and stretched back to the Viking era and the earlier Greek and Roman empires. The Soviets routinely photoshopped out-of-favor officials from official accounts, literally erasing inconvenient history. George Orwell, naturally, put it well in 1984: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

There’s much spewing out of Donald Trump’s firehose of chaos and destruction these days: his war on government, the rule of law, and decency; his reckless tariffs that threaten the economy here and abroad; his revenge-a-thon attacks on universities and law firms; his annihilation of the public health and biomedical research communities; his assault on American allies; and his effort to end the Russia-Ukraine war in Vladimir Putin’s favor. These all have dire and concrete consequences. Trump’s demolition of USAID certainly led to more deaths in Myanmar following the tragic earthquake, given that in previous years this agency would have been on the ground offering assistance within days of the disaster. Yet we also need to pay heed to Trump’s more abstract efforts, such as his war on culture and history.

Last week, Trump signed an executive order falsely titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” The document declared:

Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed 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 revisionist movement seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light. 

Trump was referring to long-standing attempts to explore the dark veins of American history—racism, sexism, genocide, and other nasty business—that have been crucial components of the national story. He called for a sole focus on the nation’s “unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness” and assailed this wider perspective for deepening “societal divides” and fostering “a sense of national shame.”

The order essentially declared that Trump is the ultimate arbiter of US history and had the right to police thought.

Conservatives who once upon a time howled about the suppression of free thought and groused that Big Government was telling people what to think voiced no objections. Just as Republicans, who slammed both Barack Obama and Joe Biden for governing through executive orders, have not muttered a word of concern about Trump’s unending flood of EOs.

Trump’s diktat targeted specific examples, including a Smithsonian American Art Museum sculpture exhibit that noted the United States has “used race to establish and maintain systems of power, privilege, and disenfranchisement.” But what’s inaccurate about that statement? That’s precisely what slavery did. Serving the right-wing theology of anti-wokeness, Trump seeks to white-out the nation’s original sin.

In the order, Trump stated, “It is the policy of my Administration to restore Federal sites dedicated to history, including parks and museums, to solemn and uplifting public monuments that remind Americans of our extraordinary heritage, consistent progress toward becoming a more perfect Union, and unmatched record of advancing liberty, prosperity, and human flourishing.” In other words, no dirty laundry—no references to the mass murder of Indigenous people, the suppression of workers, Jim Crow, the incarceration of Japanese Americans, the mistreatment of Chinese laborers, ugly interventions in Latin America and elsewhere, and so on. Only the glories of the United States shall be acknowledged—that is, worshipped.

Trump named Vice President JD Vance as head of an effort to whitewash US history, most notably by vetting exhibits and programs at the various Smithsonian entities. He also directed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to review whether public monuments, memorials, statues, or markers have “been removed or changed to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history” or “inappropriately minimize the value of certain historical events or figures.” In short, bring back the Confederate heroes.

This past week, the Trump administration forced the cancellation of most of the grants made by the National Endowment for the Humanities, which provides funding for museums, historical sites, scholarship, and various cultural and historical projects, including books, films, and radio programs, such as Ken Burns’ 1990 documentary The Civil War. Grantees were told the agency would be “repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the president’s agenda.” And, no doubt, in furtherance of Dear Leader's self-serving claptrap about the nation's past.

Racism—and anti-anti-racism—runs through Trump’s executive order. The document denounced the view “that race is not a biological reality but a social construct.” But this approach to race has become the general consensus. Those who have pushed the idea that race is a biological matter have often done so to establish a hierarchy of races. Guess which race they put at the top? And, yes, we can turn to the Nazis for further edification on this point.

Trump has launched a crusade not only against public servants, legal and governmental norms, commonsense economics, science, higher education, DEI programs, and his critics and political rivals, as he vies for wide-ranging power that will allow him to rule as an autocrat. He is striving to become the Big Brother who determines which parts of the American story are legitimate and which are to be suppressed and deleted.

During the 2024 election, Trump’s campaign was more a disinformation machine than a political operation. He peddled a fictitious tale: The nation was being overrun by violent migrants who ate cats and dogs and who were taking over entire towns in Middle America, while schools were performing transition operations on kids without informing parents and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were purposefully flooding the country with dangerous criminals and mental patients released out of prisons and hospitals…and while the US economy was collapsing. If a voter believed this false narrative, he or she really had no choice but to pull the lever for Trump.

As president, Trump is still running a disinformation con. Now it’s just bigger. Like other authoritarians, he seeks to manipulate and define reality—of the present and of the past. He is attempting to stymie the sometime messy and occasionally disturbing business of history and, to borrow a term once deployed by conservative hero Allan Bloom, close the American mind.

Trump has never been a fan of the truth. For him, reality is whatever works to his benefit. In his multi-front war on American society, he is applying his well-developed lying ways to the nation’s story—and following in the footsteps of despots who realized that the robust pursuit of history is a vital component of democracy and, thus, a threat to tyranny.

Got anything to say about this item—or anything else? Email me at ourland.corn@gmail.com.

I skipped a newsletter last week. But you got photos from Yosemite for that. (See below.) And I need to do so again for a family event this weekend. See you soon. But don’t forget: Our next Our Land Zoom shindig is on April 15 at 8 p.m. ET.

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Last week, after attending a board meeting in San Francisco, I grabbed my pal Reid Cramer, and we skedaddled to Yosemite National Park. On this crisp spring weekend, I was in search of a dose of rejuvenation. (No talk of politics, Reid!) You know why. And where better to pursue an iota of nirvana than at one of the great symbols of a shining American achievement: our national park system? Even if it has been threatened by the Trump and Musk’s feckless war on government. In February, about 1,000 employees of the Park Service were kicked to the curb, and this has led to a decrease in services (clearing trails, maintaining infrastructure, leading tours, monitoring entrances) at parks across the country.

At Yosemite, there were, fortunately, not many signs of these cuts. Not yet. People who live and work in Yosemite Valley, the main tourist center of the park, fear the summer, when Americans and overseas visitors will flock to the park to hike and climb the trails that lead to El Capitan, Half Dome, and other majestic sites. In late March, the park was already attracting many outdoors enthusiasts. One could easily imagine Yosemite being overrun in the coming months. With fewer Park Service employees, there could be chaos.

At the entrance to the valley is a sign that marks a spot where President Teddy Roosevelt sat at a campfire with John Muir in 1903, as the naturalist urged him to preserve the “priceless remnants of American wilderness.” We all benefit a century later because Roosevelt listened to Muir. (Can you imagine Trump by a campfire in an isolated forest listening to a conservationist?) Soon after passing that placard, we were walking in the direction of Half Dome on the John Muir Trail. But that was too long of a hike (8.2 miles), and we cut back on Mist Trail, which runs by the magnificent Vernal Fall.

On our second day in the park, we climbed/hiked from the bottom of the valley (altitude: 4,000 feet) to the top of Yosemite Fall (altitude: 6,700 feet), along a steep, rocky path that at points turned into a stream. This waterfall is one of the tallest in North America, close to half-mile long. The four-and-a-half-mile trek took us four hours. The return was three hours. Along the way, we passed or (more often) were passed by people from all parts of the country, as well as many foreign tourists, some who had come to the United States especially to visit Yosemite. There was a feeling of camaraderie, with all of us sharing a common legacy of America and the result of previous federal action. There also were some very tired legs. (Some of you might remember I had major back surgery in July. I was quite pleased I was able to make this journey, and afterward I sent a thank-you note to my surgeon.)

While plodding up the trail, I resisted the urge to check email and social media. (Alas, there was service.) One goal was to escape the madness for at least a few hours. I managed to do so. But I’m not sure I achieved any revitalization, for as soon as we were done and heading toward the city, I was back to tending with the tsunami of news and responding to posts and messages that had piled up. Yet it seems to me that an attempt at rejuvenation is worthwhile in and of itself. My advice: In this period of stress and trouble, find ways to take breaks. If you cannot find a waterfall, walk around the block. Or stare into space. The whole damn mess will be there when you return. As divisive forces of repression continue to assault our bedrock values and common resources, I hope our national parks will stand as reminders of the beauties and glories that we all share as Americans and that exist because we took collective action to protect them.

El Capitan:

Nevada Fall:

Yosemite Fall:

Half Dome:

Reid and me at the top of Yosemite Fall:

There are just so many accomplices these days. Expanding the list are those big law firms that are rolling over for Trump. He has brazenly abused his power, falsely accusing firms that have been involved in legal action against him or his interests of committing wrongdoing and demanding they bend the knee by providing millions of dollars in free legal services to Trump-friendly causes and by ending their DEI programs. So far, the dishonor roll includes Paul, Weiss; Willkie Farr & Gallagher; Milbank LLP; and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. By submitting to Trump’s bullying, these firms have legitimized his moblike shakedown and affirmed his assault on the freedom of law firms to represent unpopular or controversial people, parties, and causes. As they wave the white flag of surrender, the firms are diminishing their profession and aiding Trump’s effort to implement authoritarianism. They are run by cowards. Three firms targeted by Trump—Perkins Coie; Jenner & Block; and WilmerHale—have sued and obtained court orders to at least partially block Trump’s acts of revenge. Good luck to them.

Another accomplice deserves scolding: Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.). He’s a doctor and vaccine advocate who had deep qualms about Trump appointing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be secretary of Health and Human Services. Yet he ultimately caved and voted for Kennedy, claiming he had obtained assurances RFK Jr. wouldn’t go hog wild at HHS. Well, Cassidy misdiagnosed this case. This week, Kennedy oversaw the apparent decimation of the US public health system and its biomedical research community, as he fired thousands of scientists, researchers, and experts at the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration, and HHS. Kennedy also has been advocating misguided treatments for measles, as that outbreak continues to spread. (See my recent scoop on Kennedy and measles.) Here are some impacts of these wide-ranging cuts.

Yes, all Republicans are accomplices—zombie Trumpists. But there’s something worse about pretending to give a damn and then folding. Cassidy violated his Hippocratic Oath when he voted for Kennedy. Now comes the harm.

The judges begged for an expanded edition of DCotW—if only to cover all the idiocy from Trump and his cultists about his likely-to-wreck-the-economy tariffs. But they were asked to do their best to prevent a Dumbass Comment takeover of this issue.

The much-watched Wisconsin Supreme Court race—which ended with a decisive 10-point win for Democratic candidate Susan Crawford, despite Elon Musk dumping $20 million or more into the contest to boost the Republican contender—prompted absurd responses on the right. Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley, a Republican, huffed, "I think the way Judge Crawford ran her race was disgusting...I'm not looking forward to working with her...She's bought and paid for by the Democratic Party."

Was Bradley asleep for months and, consequently, missed Musk’s effort to buy the seat so Republicans can preserve the gerrymandered congressional districts that favor the GOP?

Musk himself weighed in after conspiracy nutters Alex Jones and Roger Stone claimed this race had been rigged. Musk reposted their baseless and predictable allegation with a “Hmm,” guaranteeing that his 218.6 million followers on X would be exposed to this bullshit.

With this post, Musk was legitimizing two prominent disinformationists. But for him, that’s like looking in the mirror.

On Fox, two of the five hosts of The Five thought it was fine to be dismissive and jokey about the case of the Venezuelan gay makeup artist who the Trump administration deported to an infamous megaprison in El Salvador apparently by mistake. Here’s part of the exchange:

Jessica Tarlov: Time magazine was there when the gay barber from Venezuela who had a crown tattoo that said “mom" was being processed coming into the El Salvador in—Oh, am I boring you again? I'm sorry. 

Jesse Watters: No. But you've been talking about this gay barber from El Salvador with some stupid tattoo for weeks. Weeks, Jessica. 

Greg Gutfeld: Yeah. Come on.

Watters: It's just a gay barber.

Gutfeld: He's not into you.

There is no decency in these quarters. And speaking of no decency, when Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) was confronted by Mack Schroeder, who was laid off from his job at the Department of Health and Human Services due to Musk’s DOGE cuts, the senator snarled, “You probably deserved it.”

Yes, no decency.

On to the tariffs. Hours after Trump announced these wide-ranging taxes that liberal, centrist, and conservative economists fear will damage the US economy, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, “One of the messages that I'd like to get out tonight is everybody sit back, take a deep breath, don't immediately retaliate, let's see where this goes. Because if you retaliate, that's how we get escalation."

His message, more accurately, was: If we punch you in the nose, please don’t punch back; let’s see how it goes after that. This is hardly the basis for a rational economic order. And it’s certainly not the sort of advice Trump would follow.

But a bigger buffoon this week in the Trump Cabinet was Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. He placed first with not one but two entries. On Fox, he proclaimed, "European Union won't take chicken from America...They hate our beef because our beef is beautiful and theirs is weak."

Regarding chickens, the Europeans turn away this poultry because much of it is washed in chlorinated water to kill bacteria—a practice banned by the EU and the United Kingdom. (How do you feel about your chicken nuggets now?) As for beef, the EU bans meats raised with hormonal growth promotants, and that happens to cover American beef. The idea that US beef is “beautiful” and European meat “weak” is cuckoo. Has Lutnick, a billionaire, never been to Paris and ordered beef bourguignon? If not, I recommend Polidor. A plate with a good-size portion and mash potatoes can be had for under 20 euros.

Then on CNN, Lutnick went full Trump cultist while defending the tariffs:

Let Donald Trump run the global economy. He knows what he's doing. He's been talking about it for 35 years. You gotta trust Donald Trump in the White House That’s why we put him there…It's broken. Let him fix it…The $36 trillion deficit is going to ruin our children’s lives and our grandchildren’s lives. Let Donald Trump fix the American economy.

Does Lutnick think people are stupid? Trump added nearly $8 trillion to the national debt during his first term as president. Now he’s to be trusted as a deficit cutter, as he proposes more tax cuts for the wealthy and imposes tariffs that could well cause a recession? Lutnick is the Baghdad Bob of the Trump administration. He can put this week’s trophy with all his other honors.

Of course, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) provided much inspiration when he broke the record for the longest Senate speech with a 25-plus-hour address in which he detailed and decried the assorted crises spurred by the Trump-Musk blitzkrieg. If you didn’t watch it, you should check out random portions. He did raise expectations and the bar for his fellow Democrats. Unfortunately, after his historic feat, Senate Democrats took no steps to block the confirmation of unqualified and inexperienced Trump appointments, such as Dr. Oz, who was named head of the agency that oversees Medicare and Medicaid.

There were other sources of inspiration this week—see Wisconsin—including this anti-government rally in Budapest that protested Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orbán’s new law curbing freedom of assembly and banning Pride marches:

Most Our Land readers agreed with my assessment that Signalgate was one fat reminder that Trump has recruited a bunch of unqualified sycophants to run the US government. Harry McConnell wrote:

Are any of the MAGA folks insulted by the blizzard of lies? One would expect some to say, “You expect me to believe that? I’m a high school graduate. Anyone can see it’s horse manure.” There is also something putrid in their immaturity, as evidenced by their glee at the prospect of killing other human beings.

On a similar note, Andrew Finfrock observed: “And what about targeting civilians…That is, bombing the building that the purported main rocket guy was entering with his girlfriend? A war crime?”

Mary Santarcangelo emailed:

Republicans love to throw the epithet “groomers” at Democrats, but they are the real groomers, grooming their base to believe that Democrats are demons as your reader says. What is sad to me is that so many people who were in the armed forces and swore to uphold the Constitution voted for Trump and still support him. To me the ethos of the Constitution is that if you are a lawful person living in the United States it is your right as a human being to live and breathe free. 

Cheryl Geyerman posed a question: “What do you think of AOC and Sen. Sanders?”

I salute both for hitting the hustings and passionately presenting opposition to the Trump-Musk war on America. More Democrats and progressives ought to consider similar action to show voters that there is a crisis at hand and that they are fighting tooth-and-nail for them.

Harris Zwerling wrote:

As you and many other journalists have documented, there are numerous reasons to completely distrust Musk and the claims he makes. And even more to distrust his motivations. His growing number of egregious conflicts-of-interest should make everyone skeptical. I wonder if he'll ever be forced to directly face a well-informed skeptic, better yet, questioning at a hearing while under oath.

I know I would appreciate, and I'm sure your readers would, a full examination of the workings of DOGE and the people involved. I realize that they have been anything but transparent or cooperative with the judiciary or the press. If you know of a good one, please include it in an upcoming newsletter. I'm sure your readers would also appreciate your take on what appears to me to be an ill-disguised effort to roll back the New Deal and Great Society. 

If the Democrats regain the House in the 2026 midterms, Musk can expect to be subpoenaed to appear before a congressional committee. That might be one reason he claimed that if the Democratic candidate won the Wisconsin Supreme Court race—which could lead to less gerrymandering and more congressional wins for Democrats that might result in a D takeover of the US House of Representatives—it would be the end of Western civilization. As for the DOGErs working with Musk, check out reports from ProPublica and the Washington Post.

“Moxie, a reader wrote in to ask if you’re losing weight.”
“I don’t think so. I’m just svelte.”
“She thought you were too skinny.”
“Like I said, I’m svelte. But if you want to give me more scrambled eggs, I won’t complain.”