Under the pretense of stamping out “woke” ideas and promoting patriotism, the White House is attempting to mandate uncritical acceptance of its own take on the American story, one that celebrates the martial feats of mostly white men and an imagined religious and ideological conformity that minimizes the fights, tribulations, and dissenters who have defined the country. It’s an effort that flies in the face of American ideals—and reality.
“In a pluralist democracy, there are invariably conflicts of values,” says Alexander Karn, a Colgate University historian who has written about the 250th anniversary. “To deny that messiness by seeking to erase the perspectives that don’t flatter a dominant group or help create a triumphal history is anti-egalitarian and, therefore, anti-democratic.”
Instead, Karn argues, “the road to a ‘more perfect Union,’ which is enshrined in the Constitution, runs through the past, and it depends on our willingness to confront our history in an honest and thoroughgoing way.”
Which is not the road we’re on.
Inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building—a historic gray structure that Trump has, to the dismay of preservationists, promised to paint white—John Adams has a message. “Facts do not care about our feelings,” an AI-generated version of America’s second president intones, paraphrasing not John Locke or Thomas Paine, but conservative influencer Ben Shapiro.
The exhibit, dubbed the Founders Museum, features computer-generated portraits of all 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. Though some of the material is also available online, you need access to the White House complex to see it in pesrson. Nevertheless, according to the Daily Signal, a right-wing outlet invited to cover the opening, Education Secretary Linda McMahon described it as “a place where every American can connect with the courage and conviction that built our nation.” The White House did not respond to Mother Jones’ request to visit the museum.
The project is a collaboration between a Trump administration committee called Task Force 250 and PragerU, a conservative nonprofit that makes right-leaning educational materials. The task force has also partnered with Hillsdale College—a conservative Christian school known for incubating plans to push US education rightward—to create another series of videos, dubbed “The Story of America.” In the first installment, Hillsdale President Larry Arnn alludes to Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan. Trump’s use of the word “again,” Arnn asserts, shows the president’s interest in the country’s history. This, Arnn says, “places him somewhere near the politics of Abraham Lincoln.”