Trump’s Urgent Push to Rewrite History

“William McKinley was one of our greatest presidents, ushering in an era of wealth and power. Manifest Destiny was a noble calling worthy of emulation. Handing over the Panama Canal was a folly and a sign of weakness,” the Washington Post reports.

“America’s centuries-long embrace of slavery, while regrettable, was less important than the fact that we ended it. And the assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was a heroic act of collective patriotism, not a violent effort to overturn an election.”

“Those are some of the perspectives President Donald Trump has advanced as he moves in the early days of his second presidency to reframe American history, in parallel with his efforts to reshape the government. In recasting established facts, shading long-accepted truths and endorsing falsehoods, Trump is pushing one big idea: that America is a once-great, uniquely virtuous nation whose past has been betrayed by weak leaders and vicious adversaries.”