There is a particular brand of arrogance required to look at a nation of 330 million people and decide they’re simply too stupid to have any grasp of American history. Or worse yet, to tell us we didn’t see what we saw, in real time, playing out on our televisions on January 6, 2020. It’s the kind of “dumb ass” logic, to borrow a phrase from a certain curmudgeonly puppet, that assumes if you just shout a lie loud enough, or sign a piece of paper with a fancy gold pen, the past will simply rearrange itself to suit a manufactured alternate reality.
Trump’s crusade against American history is an insult to our collective intelligence. Through a series of aggressive Executive Orders, he’s attempting to treat our national story like one of his failed reality show scripts in need of a “patriotic” rewrite. But here’s the thing. Americans aren’t nearly as stupid as he seems to think we are.
Sanitizing the Scars
In a move of historical vandalism, Trump has issued directives to “restore patriotic education” by resurrecting the 1776 Commission. This isn’t an effort to deepen historical understanding. Rather, it’s purpose is to replace it with a sanitized, feel-good narrative that glosses over the “uncomfortable” truths of our founding, like our nation’s deep-seated reliance on slavery.
And this campaign isn’t stopping at the classroom. It’s moving right into our living rooms. The FCC is “inviting” broadcasters to join the Pledge America Campaign, pushing them to air “patriotic” content and history lessons that toe Trump’s line. Sure, they’re calling it “voluntary,” but the message to these stations is clear: either join the state-sponsored pep rally or watch your license come under review. He really seems to believe that if he can just control what we hear on the morning news and see before the weather report, we’ll somehow forget all the history that doesn’t fit his tidy script.
What’s even worse is Trump’s executive order telling federal agencies to scrub anything “disparaging” from our National Parks and museums. We’re already seeing it happen: signs explaining the brutal realities of slavery and the forced removal of Native Americans are being taken down. At places like Fort Pulaski, they’ve even flagged the famous “Scourged Back” photograph for removal, that devastating picture of an enslaved man’s scars, because it doesn’t fit the “greatness” story he wants to tell. Does he really think that by taking down a plaque at the Grand Canyon or Muir Woods, we will suddenly forget how this land was acquired? Does he think that by hiding the scars of slavery, he can erase the fact that it built the very foundations of our economy? It’s an embarrassing attempt to treat the American public like children who can’t handle the truth of their own lineage.
The Feedback Loop
Human development relies on a simple, painful feedback loop: we learn by experiencing the consequences of our actions. Children learn very quickly that “hot” equates to pain; they remember the sting so they don’t touch a hot object again. Ideally, civilizations work the same way. History is our collective memory of where we’ve been burned, serving as a vital lesson on what shouldn’t be repeated.
Trump’s approach to history is purely transactional: he views it as a “how-to” manual for power rather than a cautionary tale for leadership. There is a profound disconnect in his logic. Last year he resurrected the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, an 18th-century relic that grants the president nearly unchecked power to detain or deport “alien enemies” without trial during times of conflict.
This is the same authority FDR invoked to justify the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, a move now universally condemned as a failure of justice fueled by wartime hysteria. Yet, while Trump uses this law to bypass our courts and summarily deport Venezuelan nationals, he’s simultaneously working to erase the memory of its previous victims.
By “sanitizing” the narrative at National Park sites like Manzanar and Minidoka under the banner of “truth and sanity,” he’s dismantling the physical evidence of the law’s danger. He is trying to wield the weapon while hiding the scars it left behind, ensuring the public doesn’t recognize the old wounds in the new ones he’s inflicting today.
Owning the Skeletons
Look, I get it. There are those who don’t want to admit we have a checkered past. It’s uncomfortable to acknowledge how we imported human beings and how their descendants were relegated to third-class citizenship for more than a century after the Civil War ended. It’s unpleasant to face the fact that “Americans” forced indigenous races off their lands, slaughtering many in the process.
But here’s the reality: no civilization in history can look at its entire timeline and find a perfectly clean record. You can’t. Every country has skeletons in its closet. The difference between a stagnant society and a great one is the courage to let those skeletons out. Facing those skeletons is what makes us a better people.
We Know Where We’ve Been
Trump can sign all the orders he wants, but he’s fighting a battle he can’t win. We have to know where we’ve been to know where we’re going. Our history is complicated and we understand that. We can be proud of our incredible achievements while also being honest about those shameful periods of our history. Acknowledging the horrors of slavery or Japanese internment doesn’t make anyone “anti-American.” It makes you honest. And it’s the only way we learn not to repeat our worst mistakes. Trump can keep trying to rewrite the story, but we already know the truth. We’re not that dumb.
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