Trump calls Black history an insult to America. The insult was what America did to Black Americans.
Part 2 of “Narcissus with a Bulldozer”
In Part 1 of this series, I looked at Donald Trump’s habit of tearing down what his predecessors built and putting his own name on whatever replaces it: the Iran nuclear deal, Obamacare, the East Wing of the White House, a public golf course on the Potomac. I used the old Greek myth of Narcissus, the young man so taken with his own reflection that he couldn’t look away.
When the thing in Trump’s way is Black history or Black achievement, the pattern changes. He doesn’t bother putting his name on what replaces it. He just wants it gone.
History Without the Hard Parts
In March 2025, Trump signed an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” It directed his administration to remove “improper ideology” from the Smithsonian and to review exhibits at public sites that “inappropriately disparage Americans.”
He explained what he meant that August. “The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL,” he wrote, “where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have…
