U.S. President Donald Trump, in front of a painting of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, attends an event to announce that the Space Force Command will move from Colorado to Alabama, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 2, 2025. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
From universities to museums, President Donald Trump is making a concerted effort to purge institutions of what MAGA Republicans call a "woke" version of U.S. history.
But historians and Trump opponents are pushing back, stressing that discussing the darker side of U.S. history is not bashing the United States but rather, is an effort to learn from mistakes of the past and avoid repeating them. Presidential historian Jon Meacham, a frequent guest on MSNBC, often describes frank discussions as part of the journey toward a "more perfect union."
In an opinion column published by The Guardian on September 4, Sidney Blumenthal — a former adviser to ex-President Bill Clinton and ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — argues that Trump is trying to whitewash U.S. history even though he has a painfully limited knowledge of it.
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"Of all the presidents, Donald Trump — the man who would remake the Smithsonian and alter its presentation of 'how bad slavery was,' as he put it — is surely the most ignorant of American history itself," Blumenthal laments. "What Trump doesn't know fills the Library of Congress, whose chief librarian he has fired, along with driving out the heads of the National Archives and the National Portrait Gallery, as well as dissolving programs of the National Endowment for the Humanities and defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which as a result, has paused the acclaimed 'American Experience' documentary series."
The former Clintons adviser adds, "Trump claims he is tearing down the entire federal support for history in order to reveal the true story."
A Trump White House aide, Blumenthal notes, bragged that one of Trump's goals is to "get the woke out of the Smithsonian."
"But this gospel of positive-thinking twaddle aside, Trump, proudly ignorant though he is, has for years articulated a vision of American history," Blumenthal warns. "That vision does not emphasize the strides the nation has made through tumultuous struggle since the abolition of slavery. Instead, it honors those who defended slavery, committed treason to preserve it and claim it to be a worthy American 'heritage.' Trump has repeatedly sought to shield the Confederate statues and symbols erected as tribute to the 'lost cause' myth."
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Blumenthal continues, "He has expressed and unqualified admiration for Robert E. Lee as a quintessential American hero almost always coupled with belittling remarks about (President Abraham) Lincoln. His view of history squarely aligns him with neo-Confederates, not least those who carried the Confederate flag at the U.S. Capitol during the insurrection on 6 January 2021 and whom he subsequently pardoned. Trump's version of history is not, however, simply reactionary nostalgia, or treacly kitsch for the restoration of 'Uncle Herschel,' the 'Old-Timer' to the Cracker Barrel logo. His use of the culture war is a key element to advance his policy agenda."
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Sidney Blumenthal's full column for The Guardian is available at this link.