On March 27, 2025 President Donald J. Trump released an executive order via the government’s official website “Whitehouse.gov”. This order entitled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” outlines Trump’s plan to fix the “effort to rewrite our Nation’s history” and essentially restore praise for the legacy of colonialism.
In this order Trump describes the changes made in recent years to acknowledge the contributions made by minority groups as “corrosive ideology” pushed by the previous Biden Administration. This statement is purposely framed to be impartially true. The Trump Admin is actively trying to push the narrative that cultural inclusion is a threat to the legacy of American history. This is a concerning framework to enact throughout the country as it rebuilds the gates of the past that excluded the livelihood of underrepresented communities.
Trump also expresses his distaste for the Smithsonian Institution’s inclusion of Trans-women in their celebration of Women’s History specifically in athletics. He refers to these women as “exploits of male athletes participating in women’s sports”. Not only is this statement harmful to the representation of Transgender people, but it encourages a dangerous ideology that Trans-women are not women or worthy of being included in history.
He continues this by mentioning an exhibit within the Smithsonian American Art Museum entitled “The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture” that is in place to teach others how sculptures have been used to promote racism. Trump is dissatisfied with the portrayal of “American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive”.
While these feelings are valid, it is an unfortunate truth that America was built by not only oppressing indigenous people but harming them as well in the process to create the freedoms that continue to subjugate these groups today.
The Trump Administration’s plan is to “restore Federal sites dedicated to history” and “remind Americans of [their] extraordinary heritage” through removing and essentially undoing the inclusion of information, figureheads, and inclusive monuments/exhibits from key sites across the country starting with the Smithsonian.
Towards the end of this executive order is a list of actions to be done by elected officials.
These actions include the removal of “improper ideology from such properties” and the prohibiting of spending “on exhibits or programs that degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with federal law and policy”.
This is a direct threat to American society and those who live within it. While taking away these important inclusions is not illegal, it is an important insight into the next four years of Trump’s presidency.
Minority populations have paid with their lives to help instill and protect the American Dream as well as the freedoms outlined in the constitution. For decades these groups have fought tooth and nail on behalf of their history against the intentional erasure from a government that aims to maintain a preferential white-binary standard of life. The Trump Administration’s attempt to re-rewrite history is a direct attack on the civil framework instilled for the betterment of humanity. This order can also be taken as an explicit warning to the American people of who is to be protected and rejected in the eyes of a changing governing system.