Trump’s history war collides with the fight to preserve memory

fight to – As President Donald Trump pushes to strip what he calls “divisive” content from public history ahead of the semiquincentennial, Americans are pushing back—documenting removed National Park signs, contesting the loss of a slavery exhibit in Philadelphia, and in

In the leadup to the semiquincentennial. President Donald Trump has waged a war on topics he deems “divisive. ” from DEI to critical race theory—an effort that. for many Americans. doesn’t just change classroom language or museum labels. It changes what is visible in public space. what is taught as part of the national story. and what history says people like them are allowed to be.

For one reporter and fact-checker, the shift has been personal and slow. As a kid in school. they said they learned about the disproportionate violence marginalized people faced throughout history and became pessimistic about the future. They described textbooks that minimized and dehumanized those moments of oppression alongside the achievement of anyone who wasn’t a white man. Over time. they said they became “almost desensitized” to erasure—not because it stopped hurting. but because they began to feel trained to look past it to survive the present.

In September, that reporter spoke with former Alabama poet laureate Ashley M. Jones about her book, Lullaby for the Grieving. Jones described “political grief” as “the feeling of ‘being in a place which never wanted you to be human and reminds you every day that it still doesn’t consider you a human.’” The conversation sharpened the skepticism the reporter said they’d carried about how American history is told and whether people are really meant to celebrate it together.

The disagreement, ultimately, is about what “patriotism” requires. The argument the Trump administration has made is blunt: it says the aim is to avoid content that “undermine[s] the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light.” But the reporter’s reporting—interviewing historians. nonprofit organizers. and protestors around the nation’s 250th birthday—has led them to a different conclusion: celebrating American history doesn’t have to mean ignoring harm. In fact. telling an honest and complete history that acknowledges what marginalized people endured is tied to how the country reckons with what it has been through and what it wants over the next 250 years.

One of the administration’s most literal displays of omission. the reporter said. is an animated show projected onto the Washington Monument itself. The show tells the American story from the Declaration of Independence to space exploration—but it omits historic systemic oppression such as the expulsion of Native Americans and it leaves out marginalized contributions. including the three Black women who were essential to the space race.

Opposition to that kind of culling isn’t abstract. It shows up in databases, in rallies, and in what people refuse to let disappear.

In response to Trump’s 2025 executive order aimed at getting rid of materials that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living. ” a group of librarians. public historians. and data experts created Save Our Signs. Through an online archive, people take pictures of National Park signage and inform others of signs that have been removed. The effort includes a map highlighting materials flagged for removal from leaked NPS Data. The project has produced a database of over 15. 000 photos from 422 sites—an archive meant to keep threatened documentation from simply vanishing.

The fight also played out in Philadelphia. where the reporter said the Philadelphia organization. Avenging the Ancestors Coalition. fought for the reinstallation of the President’s House slavery exhibit it helped get installed 15 years ago. During one of the rallies. Hannah Gann. a high school African American history teacher. said when her students heard the memorial was torn down. they were “upset that their real history was being erased and a huge part of our city’s history was being taken away and covered up.”.

Around these disputes sits a deeper question that historians and community leaders have been pressing: whether winning arguments by controlling the past prevents people from engaging with the future. In an April conversation with historian and American Association for State and Local History senior staff member John Garrison Marks. the reporter said Marks hoped the anniversary would be an opportunity to bring people together and support complex conversations. That hope was echoed elsewhere in the reporting.

Kitcki Carroll. the United South and Eastern Tribes executive director. told the reporter in April that for many Indigenous people. the semiquincentennial and surrounding events are a chance to “course correct and make sure that for the next 250 years we’re not dealing with the same shortcoming and failures.” The wording lands because it points beyond symbolism—toward what happens after the celebrations end.

The reporter’s account returns again and again to the same tension: history isn’t just something preserved in plaques or locked behind glass. It belongs to the people living with it now. and there are numerous ways to preserve it—through art. literature. activism. and archives that treat everyday signs as historical record.

In interviews and conversations with creatives and academics including Jones. Carmen Emmi. Victoria Chang. Isaac Butler. and Kimberlé Crenshaw. the reporter said those voices emphasized the importance of personal histories to the larger historical canon. Their work draws attention to lesser known events. including the 1885 expulsion of Chinese Americans from Eureka. California. and the overpolicing and history of entrapment of queer people. The reporter also pointed to how those perspectives add weight to public moments already familiar to many Americans. such as censorship during the AIDS crisis and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

One way the semiquincentennial has changed the reporter’s own stance. they wrote. is by making patriotism feel less like spectacle and more like responsibility. As a former resident of Alabama. they said they initially expected to be more spectator than participant in a celebration focused on Washington. DC. Instead, they came to see the semiquincentennial as more than a celebration of founding documents. Even with the state’s shortcomings. they said Alabama has a complex culture and history—from its pivotal role in the Civil Rights movement to being home to the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. where legends like Aretha Franklin and the Rolling Stones recorded hit songs.

San Francisco State University history professor Marc Robert Stein offered a similar caution about how people talk about the past. The reporter said Stein told them history isn’t cyclical—it has patterns. They added that when the reporter asks historians where society stands and where it’s headed. the answers often start with those patterns. emphasizing that the past can’t be removed from the present or the future.

Despite what is happening on the National Mall, the reporter wrote, the necessary conversations about how to mend the relationship with history and move forward are already happening. Their hope for this semiquincentennial, they said, is that more people are listening.

Trump semiquincentennial Washington Monument projection DEI critical race theory 2025 executive order National Park signage Save Our Signs Avenging the Ancestors Coalition President’s House slavery exhibit political grief Ashley M. Jones Native American history expulsion of Native Americans Black women space race Philadelphia memorials Hannah Gann