The Politics of Commemoration: Collective Memory in the Trump Era

How have historical narratives surrounding America’s past shifted under the leadership of Donald Trump?

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Published July 4th, 2026

Written by Ellena Engel

Whose history will America’s 250th “Birthday” celebrate? The Semiquincentennial celebration honoring the United States’ independence from Britain presents a prime opportunity to frame the nation’s historical identity. The way that nations interpret their history, which events are remembered and who becomes a hero, is inherently political. In the U.S., the politics of commemoration have intensified under the leadership of President Donald Trump. Over the last 5 ½ years, his administration has made significant efforts to reshape public memory around a narrower, whiter version of American history. In light of this “Trump-ification” effect, the U.S. faces renewed conflict over who is remembered, who is forgotten and what it means to be American. 

Collective memory describes a shared recollection of the past that emerges within a society through social institutions, traditions and sites of memorialization, explains Oxford professor Kathrin Bachleitner. Political leaders calibrate the salience of people, events, and movements in history. Through sites of memory—such as museums, monuments, national celebrations, and educational curricula—historical significance is created and preserved. Sites such as the September 11th Memorial in New York City evoke national grief and unity, while statues of figures like Confederate General Robert E. Lee cement heroic legacies. “Memorials are not merely representations of the past, but material, symbolic and experiential sites through which historical meaning is continuously produced and contested,” explain experts in the Journal on Current Opinion in Psychology. Through historical preservation, societies define heroes and villains, celebrate victories, and confront tragedies. By erecting monuments to soldiers, for example, nations memorialize a winning side and signal the “correct” interpretation of a conflict. Acts of commemoration also shape how the rest of the world views the U.S. They define American achievement (and failure), signal strength (and weakness) and portray the American Dream (and its mythology). 

Conflicts over collective memory are not new to American society. The U.S. has long grappled with competing interpretations of events like the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and controversial legacies of figures like Christopher Columbus. The nature of the U.S. as “a vast and diverse democratic nation” requires juggling a history of both “centuries of enslavement and triumph over global dictators, both the dispossession of a continent and bold struggles for rights by the oppressed…” explains The New Republic. Within the complex landscape of collective memory, certain versions of American history have prevailed at the expense of others. The transition from the presidency of Barack Obama—the first African-American U.S. president—to that of Donald Trump marked a particularly dramatic shift in commemorative priorities. The Obama administration symbolized a move toward more inclusive historical narratives, emphasizing the importance of African American, immigrant and LGBTQ+ histories as integral to the larger national narrative. On the heels of restorative justice in the Obama era came the ultimate political whiplash: Donald Trump, self-proclaimed “savior” of the American people from left-wing radicalism. His campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again” (MAGA), relies heavily on the premise that progressive forces have distorted American history. From his first presidential run in 2016 to today, Trump has commandeered collective memory, insisting that for too long, radical liberalism has disgraced the founding principles of America, slandered its heroes and corrupted its most vulnerable. In an Independence Day address at the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in 2020, Trump warned audience members, “Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children.” Capitalizing on the fear of the “other” bolstered the success of this rhetoric, as the President’s Independence Day warnings of  “a growing danger that threatens every blessing our ancestors fought so hard for” further weakened support for historical diversification movements. Trump’s now decade-long commitment to the MAGA ideal has involved the ruthless curtailing of historical content perceived as unpatriotic or critical of white exceptionalism. 

Within the first 100 days of his second term, a war on institutions, memorials, and museums began. National holidays dedicated to non-white groups were quickly scrapped from the calendar—including Black History Month, an annual celebration of the enduring perseverance of Black people throughout American history. Energised by pro-Palestinian demonstrations across the country’s universities in 2024, the White House threatened to freeze billions of dollars in federal spending to institutions that the current administration believed pushed a pervasive liberal agenda. Harvard University was a notable target of Trump’s rampage, which he slammed for perceived “inaction” in response to antisemitic incidents on campus.

In June of last year, the President issued an executive order entitled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” One of the directives included installing QR code feedback surveys in all national parks, where visitors can report any information within the parks that portrays American history in a “negative” light. According to the National Public Radio (NPR), one such sign in Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield in Missouri asked visitors to report “any signs or other information that are negative about either past or living Americans or that fail to emphasize the beauty, grandeur, and abundance of landscapes and other natural features.” To delegate interpretive authority to visitors rather than historians raises questions about the standards of historical accuracy within sites of memory. 

With the upcoming Semiquincentennial celebration, the Trump administration issued an executive order entitled “Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday,” which outlines the creation of a new planning body, the Task Force 250, and blueprints for a new monument entitled “The National Garden of American Heroes” that will honor “our most beloved icons.” The American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) spoke on the Trump administration’s preparations for the anniversary, saying “...these recent actions reveal that the administration remains highly invested in the symbolic power of the Semiquincentennial, while also holding a very limited vision of what American history is and how it should be commemorated and taught.” 

Beyond physical sites of memory, “Trumpification” has extended into education and public discourse. Educational policies targeting perceived “racial indoctrination” have begun rolling out at the state level. These curriculum regulations seek to restrict how historical topics related to race and inequality are taught in public schools. The classroom setting is among the most influential sites of memory, a center dedicated to shaping how young minds interpret the past and understand their role as citizens. The narrowing of curricula into Trump’s white-centric framework risks leaving substantial holes in civic education for entire generations. 

Public backlash to these commemorative shifts has been equally significant. Movements advocating for the removal of Confederate monuments, as well as nationwide demonstrations like the series of “No Kings” protests, have illustrated substantial citizen disapproval of Trump’s directives. Grounded in the notion that America’s foundations are in revolution against tyranny, the “No Kings” movement calls out the hypocrisy of Trump’s insistence on restoring “traditionalist” American values held by the Founding Fathers while deifying himself in a king-adjacent manner. 

Commemoration is not merely an act of remembrance; it is a symbol of power. By acknowledging the livelihood of minority groups in a memory landscape that has long honored solely white groups, we saw meaningful acknowledgement from past administrations of the skeletons in our closet. For the time being, the leadership that once sought to diversify the leading narratives of American history is a thing of the past. President Trump has commandeered the upcoming anniversary as a stepping-stone in his crusade to restore the “truth” and sanctity to America’s historical past. Achieving a version of “truth” that prioritizes the health of democracy may depend on whether America’s collective memory reflects the complexity of its past and the diversity of its people—or only the version deemed most politically convenient.

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