Trump's War on American History

On Friday, Donald Trump fired another shot in his war on accurate American history. He signed an Executive Order titled “Restoring Trust in the Smithsonian Institute” which will allow signs to be placed outside the National Museum of American History which tell visitors that the museum doesn’t portray history accurately. The order follows a report issued by the White House complaining that the history museum is ideologically liberal and fails to tell America’s true story.

Having followed these issues for nearly two decades, I can see what is going on. For a long time, many evangelicals within the Republican party have wanted to capture the nation’s founding for themselves. Seeing the nation as having a Christian founding has political implications for the present, or so they believe. Donald Trump knows this is an issue of importance to his base so he is using it to distract from more important failures, such as the War in Iran, the Epstein files, the bad economy, and so on. Pay no attention to these major issues over here; look at how I am owning the libs.

In fact, evangelicals who want government assistance to bolster their religious superiority — let’s call them Christian nationalists — don’t care if their history stories are accurate. They just want Christian folklore to dominate the nation’s public institutions, museums, national parks, and schools. They feel sure that their followers won’t check the footnotes or listen to experts. Sadly, often, they are right.

I wrote The Christian Past That Wasn’t for just this time. Christian nationalists have a powerful ally in Donald Trump and the federal government. How long will the Smithsonian be able to hold off political pressure to modify displays and exhibits? Some National Park displays have already been changed. The White House has been active in putting out false information on official media channels. It is very difficult for those bringing the facts to compete.

At this point, I still feel optimistic that the facts will win out. Even so, due to the efforts of Christian nationalists, there are many people are who have a false understanding of the nation’s founding. That fact means those who write factual history will have much to do for the foreseeable future.

For more information on The Christian Past That Wasn’t, go to www.christianpast.com.