This morning I was on several shared conversations with other students of history on the impact of President Trump’s defeat in the mid-term election on American history. Some said that this this will lead to the resumption of Federal commitment to presenting an historically-based story of our nation at our National Parks and at the Smithsonian. I wish that was true.
Let’s look at the record.
Very few of the changes in the National Parks were authorized by Congress. No bill passed in the Senate or House requiring the Park Service to take down a modern sign at Manassas National Battlefield Park that provided a context for the statue of “Stonewall” Jackson on Henry House Hill explaining that the commanding Jackson, full of muscular virility, was a product of the Lost Cause interpretation of history.
Trump did not seek an okay from Congress before he had the Department of the Interior send a letter to all National Park sites in the country insisting that they submit photos of exhibits and literature so that “DEI” exhibits could be destroyed.
The Department of the Interior did not seek guidance from Congress before it announced that it was designing signs denouncing the Smithsonian. The plaques will claim that the museum is lying in its presentations on our history.
Trump harassed the Secretary of the Smithsonian, Lonnie Bunch, until he resigned. Bunch was a loyal part of the Smithsonian Institution. He began working at the Institution in 1989 and was the first director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Trump and his henchmen have also worked to have other staff there resign.
Trump has overseen the dramatic cutbacks in staff at the National Park System. A quarter of the staff were either let go or forced into early retirement. Those Rangers who tried to increase the coverage of Black and Latino history were targeted for dismissal.
The Defense Department removed the history of women, Blacks, and Latinos from historical online sites. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced plans to restore the Confederate statue to Arlington National Cemetery. He did not get Congressional authorization.
Hegseth has brought in Doug Wilson, a right wing pastor, to “educate” the staff of the Defense Department about the justice of slavery and the importance of the Confederacy to God. Hegseth has also renamed army bases after Confederate “heroes”, in spite of Congressional opposition. Hegseth has presided over the installation of Confederate memorials at army sites like West Point.
Trump is set to begin construction on his triumphal arch set between Arlington National Park and the Lincoln Memorial. The arch will negatively impact nine Civil War sites in the Washington area. In spite of that finding by experts at the National Park Service, Trump ignored it and is proceeding with the dysfunctional arch.
Losing the Congress will not stop Trump from distorting our history, promoting adherents of the Lost Cause, and altering our public educational system to disparage People of Color, women, LGBT people, Latinos, and other groups that the white supporters of MAGA are antagonistic to. We can’t just sigh a sigh of relief. We need to work together to stop and reverse Trump’s distortion of history.
Trump will have a hard time changing laws on the environment, labor law, and civil rights, so it is likely that he will devote his talents to low hanging fruit. Some of the lowest hanging fruit is our declining truthful telling of our history.
Note: Feature photo from HuffPost.
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