While Donald Trump’s political agenda is composed of an array of double standards, propaganda, misleading information, blatant racism, misogyny, and other forms of hatred, the most impactful component of his rhetoric is the complete rewriting of history.
The United States has a long-standing past of historical revisionism, most notably with the “Great American History Myth.” This term was coined to describe the romanticizing and almost mythological essence surrounding the founding and westward expansion of this nation. The far-right sector of our nation has taken this idea to an extreme.
Historical revisionism is not uncommon, as many nations shelter their people from the shadows of the past. The MAGA rhetoric, however, has rewritten this nation’s founding, shifted the story of the Civil War, and has idealized the ‘50s and ‘60s, all to manipulate an uninformed political base to support their racist propaganda.
During the final days of President Trump’s first term, he made a direct effort to alter American history. He released the “1776 Report,” which was claimed to promote a “patriotic education.” This patriotic education, however, only provided a falsified version of American history that failed to acknowledge the shortcomings of the founding fathers and the role slavery played in our nation. The American Historical Association released a statement condemning the report, and even described the report as “a simplistic interpretation that relies on falsehoods, inaccuracies, omissions, and misleading statements” (historians.org).
Trump’s followers have consistently parroted the idea that America was founded as a Christian nation. This is false. Pastor Robert Jeffress, a firm believer that Trump was chosen by God to lead our nation, led a 2018 sermon to his crowd of thousands at the Dallas First Baptist Church titled “America is a Christian Nation.” According to Jeffress, “America was founded as a Christian nation and her continued success will be determined by her fidelity to her spiritual heritage” (firstdallas.org).
In contrast to MAGA’s beliefs, according to Britannica, many Founding Fathers, including Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, considered themselves to be Deists, meaning they believed in a higher power but not specifically the Christian doctrine (britannica.com). The Founding Fathers were, in fact, strictly opposed to a national religion and exerted efforts to protect the freedom of religion. These false claims of a Christian nationality are simply a tool to legitimize the rampant Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in Trump’s version of America.
In 1860, Abraham Lincoln, a man strongly opposed to the expansion of slavery, was elected president. Between 1861 and 1862, eleven states would secede from the Union. While it is almost unanimously agreed by historians that the Civil War was caused by slavery, MAGA would like you to believe differently. At a campaign rally in Iowa, Trump said, “I think you could have negotiated that [the Civil War]” (cnn.com). An issue such as slavery could not be negotiated. The issue stems from fundamental differences in human decency and respect. Negotiating with a group willing to dehumanize and submit millions to the atrocity of slavery is simply unfeasible.
Republican Nikki Haley omitted slavery from her answer when directly asked what the causes of the Civil War were. The idea that the southern states, which were reliant on slavery for their social and economic structure, seceded because of states’ rights, and not slavery, is a complete misrepresentation of history. This idea of history disregards the importance of slavery to American history and opens the door for continued systemic racism in this nation.
The very foundation of the Trump campaign, “Make America Great Again,” is absolute revisionism. The notion that America was “great” is a very challenging topic to discuss. While there have been times throughout our nation’s history when it has been great in comparison to the nations of the time, America has never been great when analyzed from a modern point of view. In a 2016 interview, Trump pointed to the late ‘40s and ‘50s as a time when America was prospering. Trump said, “We were not pushed around. We were respected by everybody. We had just won a war. We were pretty much doing what we had to do” (cnn.com).
While the American economy in the ‘50s was prospering, in large part due to the post-World War II industrial boom, societal standards across the nation struggled. During the ‘50s, America was engulfed by McCarthyism, a mass paranoia of communism; nearly 40,000 Americans died in a stalemate during the Korean War, and Jim Crow Laws and racism were still in full effect. The ‘50s were not America’s golden age, but rather a decade of severe social turmoil and inequality.
Trump’s agenda has been built on the uninformed and the misinformed. Trump-loving Republicans are no different than flat-earthers or other conspiracy theorists, trapped in a whirlpool of misrepresentation and beliefs that only fit their preconceived ideas. The MAGA campaign has utilized American revisionism to legitimize its racist and xenophobic ideas, attempting to usher in an era where white nationalism is protected and supported.