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The Guardian
21 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Trump is deeply obsessed with US history – but he has learned all the wrong lessons from it
Today the US army will parade in style along the National Mall in Washington DC to celebrate its 250th anniversary. This also just happens to be the 79th birthday of President Donald J Trump. As commander-in-chief, he will take the salute from a viewing platform on Constitution Avenue. But this is not a mere vanity project, as some critics have claimed. History really matters to the US's 47th president. One of Trump's last acts before reluctantly leaving the White House in January 2021 was to publish a report by his '1776 Commission', created to 'restore understanding of the greatness of the American Founding'. Deliberately, the commissioners included few university historians because universities were described as often being 'hotbeds of anti-Americanism, libel, and censorship that combine to generate in students and in the broader culture at the very least disdain and at worst outright hatred for this country'. The 1776 Commission demanded a return to truly 'patriotic education', declaring: 'We must resolve to teach future generations of Americans an accurate history of our country so that we all learn and cherish our founding principles once again. We must renew the pride and gratitude we have for this incredible nation that we are blessed to call home.' In this spirit, on 2 May this year, the president posted that he was renaming 8 May and 11 November respectively as 'Victory Day for World War II and Victory Day for World War I' because 'we won both Wars, nobody was close to us in terms of strength, bravery, or military brilliance', and it was time for the US to 'start celebrating our victories again!' The parade on 14 June is also intended to raise the curtain on a spectacular nationwide celebration of the 250th anniversary of US independence, extending right across the country and culminating on 4 July 2026. According to the White House website, one feature will be a video history series that 'tells the remarkable story of American Independence. It will highlight the stories of the crucial characters and events that resulted in a small rag-tag army defeating the mightiest empire in the world and establishing the greatest republic ever to exist.' History on parade, indeed. As is often the case, Trump does start with a valid point. After he witnessed the extravaganza of Bastille Day in 2017, where French and American troops marched down the Champs-Élysées to celebrate the centenary of the US's entry into the first world war, he was determined to stage a parade of his own. So what's wrong with that? Shouldn't countries be proud of their past? OK (if you don't mind the cost). But pride should be rooted in honesty, especially when Nato in Europe is engaged in a proxy war in Ukraine against Vladimir Putin, a systematic falsifier of history. And if we're trying to be honest, world wars aren't like the World Series with one country trumping all the others and winning almost single-handedly. Take the second world war. On 3 May this year, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev dismissed Trump's claims as 'pretentious nonsense', asserting that 'Victory Day is ours and it is 9 May. So it was, so it is, so it will always be!' Medvedev is now an obedient Putinist, but he and other Russians rightly point to their huge losses in 1941-45 – roughly 27 million people. Stated differently, in the three years from June 1941 to June 1944, between Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union and the D-day landings in Normandy, more than 90% of the German army's battle casualties (killed, wounded, missing and prisoners) were inflicted by the Red Army. That puts Alamein and Tunis, Anzio and the liberation of Rome into a different perspective. Yet Americans can rightly say that they were in a league of their own as a 'superpower' – a word coined in 1944 to signify 'great power and great mobility of power'. Their huge C-47 transport planes and the B-17 and B-24 bombers allowed the US to wage war right across the world. Their modern fleets of aircraft carriers, built to avenge Pearl Harbor, island-hopped across the Pacific to Japan itself. The Pacific war ended with the firebombing of Tokyo and the nuclear obliteration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Or consider the speed of the remarkable breakout from Normandy that enabled allied armies to liberate Brussels on 3 September 1944, occupying positions they had not expected to reach until May 1945. When an astonished Winston Churchill asked how the GIs were being fed and supplied, US general Omar Bradley said he was running trucks up to the front 'bumper to bumper, 24 hours a day'. Ford delivered the goods. But Britain also played a crucial part in victory. Had our embattled island gone the same way as Scandinavia, France and the Low Countries in the summer of 1940, Hitler would have thrown all his resources against the Soviet Union, while Roosevelt's US would probably have turned in on itself and concentrated on defending the western hemisphere. Instead, a combination of Churchillian leadership, modern fighters linked to the new Chain Home system of radar and the courage of the RAF pilots managed to keep Hitler at bay. Eventually, Britain became the essential supply base and launchpad for the liberation of Hitler's Fortress Europe. And so in 1944-45, the allied armies converged on Germany from east, west and south. Of course, it was an unholy alliance, animated by divergent aims and values. But the extermination of nazism was a goal all the allies shared. With this in mind, let's glance back to the US's most important victory: independence. Yes, this was in large measure a David v Goliath story of 'a small rag-tag army defeating the mightiest empire in the world'. The US's independence was indeed testimony to George Washington's leadership and his troops' courage and resilience (reinforced by his insistence on inoculation against the smallpox epidemic). But this was also a world war as the British empire battled against its global foes. Crucially, by the 1780s Britain lost naval supremacy because (unusually) three rival seapowers had combined against it: France, Spain and the Dutch. It was blockade by the French fleet that forced Lord Cornwallis's historic surrender at Yorktown in 1781 and British acceptance of American independence. The purpose of historical research is to set events in context, not to boost national pride. The story of the US's founding, like that of Hitler's defeat, reminds us that allies matter – in the past, the present and the future. That should not be forgotten when history goes on parade. David Reynolds's most recent book is Mirrors of Greatness: Churchill and the leaders who shaped him. He co-hosts the Creating History podcast
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Patriotic education' and its reality in New Hampshire schools
"What I teach is the truth — both sides of the coin in order to present to students the bright and dark moments of our nation's past." (Getty Images) On Jan. 29, 2025, President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order that 'Ends Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling' that specifically emphasizes a 'Patriotic education' that presents the history of America grounded in: 'an accurate, honest, unifying, inspiring, and ennobling characterization of America's founding and foundational principles' and 'a clear examination of how the United States has admirably grown closer to its noble principles throughout its history.' Trump's view of a patriotic education portrays constant American excellence, but in truth, that is only one half of the story. Teaching the darkness of our past is not unpatriotic and highlights the change of where we as a country came from. Understanding both helps students develop their own sense of why this country is worth living in, why America is the home of liberty, and how we can uphold the values that are central to us. In addition to these principles is the reestablishment of the 1776 Commission that started in 2020 to combat the conversation surrounding Nikole Hannah-Jones' 1619 Project. Trump, along with many other conservatives, believe that the United States and its history education has built a curriculum on guilt rather than critical thinking. The order states that no one 'should feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress because of … actions committed in the past.' Trump and his supporters are convinced that history is being rewritten in the classroom, and that we are living in a time where students are taught to hate their country. As a history teacher, I know this to be false and a direct attack on educators and historians alike. What I teach is the truth — both sides of the coin in order to present to students the bright and dark moments of our nation's past. This includes slavery, racism, sexism, war, and violence. But it also includes political unity, memory, and movements. With the 250th anniversary of the United States' birth happening next year, conversations among historians, teachers, politicians, citizens, and anyone interested creates an in-depth analysis of every part of the Revolution. From the military battles, political animosity, and various perspectives of individual lives, the Revolution is viewed from so many angles. The Revolution in our American memory is in the fabric of every movement. In New Hampshire, Revolutionary War veteran John Stark coined the term 'Live Free or Die,' which is on every license plate in the state next to the Old Man of the Mountain. What is too often forgotten is the rest of his statement: 'death is not the greatest of evils' — which means that in order to protect our Republic, we must be willing to discuss its past. Liberty is the fundamental right in America, but only if we can keep it. Part of an education is understanding how to be a civic leader, and New Hampshire knows this value. In February of this year, a state representative introduced House Bill 283, which would eliminate the requirements of what makes up an 'adequate education' in the state. Civics, history, art, and other humanities and science courses were part of the list to be discarded. Thousands upon thousands (including myself) gave feedback against the bill. So many people showed up to the hearing that they needed to move to a bigger room. The point is that New Hampshire parents, teachers, and students showed up because they know the value that history education (and other subjects) holds. With humanities programs being cut all over the country, the necessity for them has never been more apparent. With the kind of harmful rhetoric that a 'Patriotic education' promotes, it emphasizes a dissolution of our past and transforms a false reality of what happened. Teachers describe the history of the nation as it was in order to explain why it is. History teachers do not make students feel guilty; we explain the perspectives of African Americans being enslaved; Native Americans in boarding schools; women during World War II, etc., while also connecting it all together to the larger picture of the famous people who helped craft our Republic. History is all about perspective, and sharing those with students naturally gives them a sense of where our country came from to encourage how they celebrate patriotism. It is not just July 4, but a lifelong understanding of where we came from.
Boston Globe
05-02-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Republicans praise Trump plans to dismantle Department of Education, but others see a contradiction
Trump is simultaneously pursuing both tracks. Advertisement This week, the Education Department put jobs to eliminate. Trump's planned executive order aims to shrink or dissolve the Education Department, according to two people with knowledge of the plan. On Tuesday Trump told reporters he wants to 'let the states run schools,' and wants his nominee for education secretary Linda McMahon to 'put herself out of a job.' At the same time, though, Trump has ordered the Education Department to carry out elements of his agenda. His executive order on Jan. 29 directed the education secretary to help the administration root out antisemitism on college campuses. Trump also ordered the department to set up a 1776 Commission to 'promote patriotic education,' according to another executive order, titled 'Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling.' 'I don't know that there is a clear message from the Trump administration,' McCluskey said. 'Either they intend to get the federal government out, or they intend to use the federal government to advance their own ideas of what should be taught and what policies schools should have. This tension might exist for the whole administration.' Although congressional action would be required to abolish the Department of Education, a White House spokesperson said in a statement to The Boston Globe that Trump 'plans to fulfill a campaign promise by reevaluating the [department's] future.' (The Wall Street Journal first reported on the planned executive order.) Advertisement In 1979, during the Jimmy Carter administration, Congress turned the federal Office of Education into a Cabinet-level department tasked with collecting data on US education and distributing federal aid to schools, states, and students. Since then, the department's headcount has approximately doubled, to 4,300 employees, and its annual budget grew to $60 billion. It is the smallest of the 15 Cabinet-level departments. Among its responsibilities, Since the department's creation, conservatives have advocated for abolishing it and returning all control of education to states and municipalities. Campaigning for the presidency in 1980, Ronald Reagan called it 'President Jimmy Carter's new bureaucratic boondoggle.' In 1996, the Republican National Committee vowed to abolish it. In 2016, multiple Republican candidates echoed that promise. But the talk never turned into policy. Trump and his allies have said the department promotes indoctrination of young people into progressive ideology and wastes government dollars on DEI programs, while also failing to deliver on its core mission of improving education outcomes from kindergarten to college. 'The department has not lived up to the expectations set up for it when it was created,' said Jonathan Butcher, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation who contributed to the Project 2025 governing playbook for the Trump administration. 'There is nothing about the agency's existence that demonstrates it's good for taxpayers or good for students.' Advertisement Still, Butcher cautioned the Trump administration against mandating curriculum for use in classrooms. (He does support the restart of the 1776 Commission and said it could be used for other purposes). 'It's not Washington's job to be coming up with curricula,' Butcher said. There is some disagreement within Trump world about whether the end goal is abolition or reform of the department. Ilya Shapiro, of the conservative Manhattan Institute, said he would favor dismantling the department, but he acknowledges that couldn't happen overnight. Some core functions, he said, would have to transfer to other agencies. The student loan portfolio, for example, could move to the Treasury Department while the responsibilities of the Office for Civil Rights could transfer to the Justice Department, as outlined in Project 2025, which Trump distanced himself from on the campaign trail but is now implementing. Some conservatives say that would make more sense than the current arrangement. 'It's not clear that a bunch of bureaucrats around education are the natural stewards for a megabank with obligations in excess of $1 trillion,' said Rick Hess, fellow with the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute. 'It probably makes more sense to have that run out of treasury by people who know banking.' Some of the department's functions and responsibilities cannot be transferred or eliminated by executive fiat. Congress designated many of the department's responsibilities and only congressional action can remove them. Many political observers think it's virtually inconceivable Congress would go along with many of these changes because of the Republican Party's slim majority in the House of Representatives and the need to secure some Democratic votes to overcome the 60-vote filibuster in the Senate. Advertisement David Randall, the director of research of the right-leaning National Association of Scholars, acknowledged that congressional action would be required to pare back the department to the extent he favors. But he said he's not ruling any possibility out. 'The last two weeks have seen things unprecedented in politics such that I don't think anybody is in a good position to say they know how people are likely to behave,' he said. Trump, though, can nevertheless use the bully pulpit to spur schools to remake themselves according to his wishes, including adopting a more 'patriotic' curriculum — as long as he doesn't use the force of law, said Adam Kissel, a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation. 'He should express what he thinks makes an educated citizen, a patriotic citizen,' Kissel said. 'It's still up to every school [and] college if they agree with that, and do what the president thinks.' Jackie Kucinich of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Hilary Burns can be reached at
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Expands School Choice, Narrows What Schools Can Teach
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed a pair of executive orders that could transform public K-12 education in the United States. The first is an order directing federal grants to help fund state-level school choice programs, and the second attempts to ban so-called "radical indoctrination" in K-12 education. The school choice order directs the secretary of education to issue guidance on how states can use federal formula funds to fund "K-12 educational choice initiatives." The order also contains provisions to expand school choice opportunities for low-income families, military families, and those eligible for Bureau of Indian Education schools. "When our public education system fails such a large segment of society, it hinders our national competitiveness and devastates families and communities," the order reads. "For this reason, more than a dozen States have enacted universal K-12 scholarship programs, allowing families — rather than the government — to choose the best educational setting for their children." The second order denies federal funding to K-12 schools that engage in "illegal and discriminatory treatment and indoctrination in K-12 schools, including based on gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology." Under examples of this "discriminatory ideology," the order lists teaching like "members of one race, color, sex, or national origin are morally or inherently superior to members of another race, color, sex, or national origin," or that "an individual, by virtue of the individual's race, color, sex, or national origin, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously." The order also reinstates the 1776 Commission, a group dedicated to promoting "patriotic education." While Trump's school-choice executive order primarily works to allow states to use federal funds to expand school-choice programs, his order against Critical Race Theory attempts to reshape the ideological tenor of many public school curricula. Governments generally have wide latitude to direct curriculum decisions in public schools, but there's reason to be cautious of orders like this. Many "divisive concepts" measures, like this executive order, are "so vague that they arguably forbid teaching about slavery or racism at all, even uncontroversial and anodyne statements of historical fact," warns the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a First Amendment group. However, it's almost certain that the "radical indoctrination" executive order is constitutional. While similar laws have generally not been upheld when they've been applied to universities, laws like Florida's STOP WOKE Act have been allowed to go forward in their applications for K-12 schools. Public university professors have full First Amendment rights, but public K-12 teachers face much stricter limits on academic freedom. "Imprinting anti-American, subversive, harmful, and false ideologies on our Nation's children not only violates longstanding anti-discrimination civil rights law in many cases, but usurps basic parental authority," reads the order. "Demanding acquiescence to 'White Privilege' or 'unconscious bias,' actually promotes racial discrimination and undermines national unity." The post Trump Expands School Choice, Narrows What Schools Can Teach appeared first on
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump signs executive order to defund schools teaching CRT, ‘radical gender ideology'
President Trump signed an executive order to prohibit federal funds from going to K-12 public schools that teach critical race theory (CRT) or gender issues. The order, which could quickly face legal challenges, 'prohibits federal funding of the indoctrination of children which includes radical gender ideology and critical race theory in the classroom.' The Education secretary and Defense secretary — for schools run by the defense department — are ordered to create a strategy for ending 'indoctrination in K-12 education' within 90 days. The order also reinstates the 1776 Commission Trump created in his first term, telling all executive agencies to 'prioritize the advancement of patriotic education.' CRT, which is typically taught at the collegiate and postgraduate level, has been around for decades and holds that race is a social construct embedded in American institutions. But in his order, Trump used the example of the Albemarle County School District in Virginia, which the administration says created an 'anti-racism' policy that taught a student 'her achievement was based on her race,' alleging the incident was a result of CRT. It is unclear what the criteria will be for the Department of Education to determine if a school is teaching CRT. Numerous red states have already banned CRT in public schools or have introduced bills to do so. The order also goes after 'radical gender ideology' and instructs the attorney general to work with state attorneys general and local district attorneys to 'file actions against teachers and school officials who sexually exploit minors or practice medicine without a license through 'social transition' practices.' Trump uses examples such as a school district in Virginia requiring teachers to use a 'student's preferred name and pronouns' and one in Wisconsin that allegedly adopted a policy to 'disrupt the gender binary.' While the order threatens federal funding to K-12 schools, only around 10 percent of public school funding comes from the federal government, with most of the money to schools received from state and local governments. 'On day one, I will sign a new executive order to cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children,' Trump said previously. The president is also signing other executive orders that support school choice programs and crack down on foreign students who committed crimes during pro-Palestinian protests last year. All these actions come before Trump's Education secretary nominee, Linda McMahon, has even had her confirmation hearing. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
