Professor says Trump and MAGA followers will use ‘patriotism’ to ‘whitewash’ problematic parts of U.S. history
On July 4, 2026, Americans should be prepared for President Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans to “weaponize” the country’s 250th anniversary, an Indiana University at Bloomington professor said.
Jeffrey Isaac, a political science professor, reflected on Independence Day and the Declaration of Independence in a column Thursday published by Inside Higher Ed.
He is working on a book that “challenges the ways that the MAGA movement is poised to weaponize the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.”
In the coming months, Isaac expressed concerns that Trump and his MAGA followers will “whitewash the ways that patriotism and even the preamble of the Declaration itself have been mobilized” to allow injustices like slavery.
This “patriotism” will be on display in the coming months when Trump “plans to turn the entire year leading up to next year’s 250th anniversary of the Declaration’s signing into a celebration of ‘American greatness’—and thus of himself,” the professor wrote:
Back in May 2023, Trump released a campaign video promising what Politico described as “a blowout, 12-month-long ‘Salute to America 250’ celebration,” including “a ‘Great American State Fair,’ featuring pavilions from all 50 states, nationwide high school sporting contests, and the building of Trump’s ‘National Garden of American Heroes’ with statues of important figures in American history.”
In his second week in office, Trump issued two executive orders centered on the Declaration. The first, “Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday,” announced that “it is the policy of the United States, and a purpose of this order, to provide a grand celebration worthy of the momentous occasion of the 250th anniversary of American Independence on July 4, 2026.” The other, “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K–12 Schooling,” mandated the termination of “radical, anti-American ideologies” and the re-establishment of a “President’s Advisory 1776 Commission” charged with promoting patriotic education.
Isaac said Trump first began pushing his “ideological mission” during his first term in office, including through the 1776 Commission. The commission published a report refuting “The 1619 Project,” which claims the American Revolution was fought in part to maintain slavery.
Since returning to office, Trump has “commenced an ideological and economic assault on higher education, committed to ‘Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History’ by purging society of ‘divisive narratives that distort our shared history,’” Isaac wrote.
Isaac (pictured) said the Declaration of Independence “deserves appreciation and celebration” but it also is a “human invention not above moral reproach.”
However, under Trump’s leadership, “[h]istorical understanding and social criticism are out and national reverence is in,” he said.
Separately, on his substack, Isaac further criticized the president and his followers.
“Donald Trump plans to use next year’s 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence as an occasion to organize a year-long campaign to celebrate his xenophobic, racist, and anti-liberal conception of ‘American Greatness,’” he wrote.
Isaac described the president’s interpretation of the Declaration as “despotic” and asserted that “MAGA propaganda” teaches a “ mythic, whitewashed, and reactionary understanding of American history.”
He called on democracy-loving Americans to “defend a robustly democratic understanding of its historical and contemporary role in inspiring the very freedoms that Trump is determined to destroy.”
In essence, the professor believes “Trumpism represents a clear and present danger to constitutional democracy in the U.S.”
His book on the topic is slated for release early next year, according to his substack.
MORE: Trump’s 1776 Commission report rebuts ‘reckless re-education attempts’
IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: The Declaration of Independence appears in front of an American flag; Mike Flippo/Shutterstock, Indiana University at Bloomington