Trump teams wants to rewrite history by axing books on slavery

President Donald Trump’s war on U.S. history is far from over.

Thanks to an executive order, books telling the true story of slavery in the United States have reportedly been labeled as “corrosive ideology” and could soon be purged from national park bookstores.

According to The Washington Post, internal records from the Department of Interior show that books on slavery, George Washington, and the history of Native Americans are among those that have been flagged for possible removal.

Trump’s March 7 executive order, “Restoring Truth And Sanity To American History,” instructed the Smithsonian Institution and the national park system to purge materials that don’t align with conservative ideology on U.S. history, which prioritizes the views of racist white people.

Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources at the National Parks Conservation Association, slammed the Trump administration’s attempt at whitewashing.

“Great countries don’t hide from or sanitize their history,” he told the Post.

For instance, a book sold at the Washington Monument gift shop that labels George Washington as an “enslaver” has been flagged for potential violation of Trump’s order—despite the fact that Washington did indeed enslave people.

The official website for Mount Vernon, Washington’s residence, notes that he owned “hundreds” of Black people who lived on the estate. It also says that Washington “depended on their labor to build and maintain his household and plantation.”

The department has also reportedly flagged a children’s book on the life of former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who was appointed by President Joe Biden. Haaland was the first Native American to serve as a Cabinet secretary in U.S. history.

This right-wing attack is in line with other racist conservative initiatives, including a Florida education curriculum that falsely claims that slavery brought “personal benefit” to enslaved Black people.

The Trump administration has been focused on purging educational materials on U.S. history, particularly regarding abuses against people of color and the LGBTQ+ community. It has also sought to erase evidence of advancement of people in these groups and to establish laws and policies to undo civil rights gains.

At the same time, the Trump team has celebrated white supremacy by renaming military bases after pro-slavery Confederate figures and by using white supremacist imagery in official government communications.

All told, the Trump administration has made it clear that it wants to pervert the historical record and restrict Americans from learning the truth—good and bad—about their own country.