President Donald Trump announced via Truth Social last Sunday that the Kennedy Center would close for a two-year construction project, citing the venue’s “tired, broken and dilapidated” condition. The performing arts center had come under extreme pressure in recent weeks as prominent artists and production companies canceled upcoming performances in protest of the “Trump Kennedy Center” rebranding. President Trump’s targeting of the Kennedy Center is the latest in a long line of efforts to censor and erase American history during his second term in office. His destruction and disregard for the historical narratives that built this country is a disturbing move that I do not take lightly. When an administration so blatantly rewrites history under false pretenses favorable to their ideology, it falls on us, as students and future world leaders, to defend and preserve the truth. GW and its student body must stand united against historical revisionists who threaten to bend this truth to their will. Visiting museums, taking classes in history and keeping those stories alive is the only way to counter unscrupulous revision.
Congress founded the Kennedy Center, then the National Cultural Center, in 1958. President Dwight D. Eisenhower commissioned the center to recognize the United States’ growing cultural influence on the world stage. President John F. Kennedy, Eisenhower’s successor, championed its construction up until his assassination in 1963. To honor Kennedy’s lifelong commitment to the arts, Congress and President Lyndon B. Johnson legally renamed the National Cultural Center in 1964 to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, designated forever in history as a living memorial to the late president. While many of Trump’s anti-intellectual initiatives are alarming, perhaps the most visibly jarring decision of his term thus far was the destruction of the East Wing of the White House in preparation for a new grand ballroom.
Many D.C. citizens may only focus on how this choice substantially detracted from the physical beauty of the White House, but it also vanquished decades of rich history to remain among the rubble of the former East Wing — to be lost in time. Built in 1942 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he initially constructed the two-story extension as a ploy to distract from the underground bunker installed below it, which would protect the president and his administration from enemy attack during the height of the Second World War. In 1977, First Lady Rosalynn Carter established the wing as the seat of power and influence for the First Lady of the United States, as her advocacy for mental health set an incredibly powerful precedent for the normalization of mental health issues by public officials. The legacy of the office of the First Lady remains as an inspiration for many who seek public office, which I would imagine includes many GW students as well. To steal from the public such a significant part of our culture is an invaluable loss.
Modern digital databases house millions of primary documents, photos and videos, but public access to those records has been limited under Trump’s diversity, equity and inclusion purge. In compliance with his executive orders, the Department of Defense deleted thousands of archival materials in March that reference the role of women and minorities in U.S. military history. He stripped medals of honor, stories of soldiers and details on certain battles from the Korean War from history because the 1950s Cold War conflict marked the first time Black and White soldiers fought alongside each other in desegregated units since the American Revolution. The Department of Defense also required the U.S. Air Force to remove all training material that referenced the Alabama Tuskegee airmen — the first Black military pilots — and female pilots during WWII. Even images of the Enola Gay, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber used to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, were removed by DEI flagging systems, as the word ‘gay’ was thought to be in reference to homosexuality.
Beyond the haphazard implementation of this program, the simple premise of “deleting” any historical record is absurd. History is not intended to protect our romantic visions of an idealized world but to discomfort our preconceived notions of society for a fuller understanding of the world. I cannot wrap my head around any logical justification for this blatant dismissal of legitimate sources. It only impedes upon the work we strive to accomplish at GW — to leave the world better than we found it.
Trump has not only eliminated parts of American history but is also writing his own. The White House installed plaques in December that present false and misleading claims about the actions of his immediate predecessors and exaggerate the current president’s accomplishments. The claims range from former President Barack Obama having “spied” on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign to Trump crediting himself for “ending eight wars” to Biden assuming office through “the most corrupt election ever seen in the United States.” As Trump sends FBI agents to raid election warehouses, the layers behind his attempts to reframe history become all the more disturbing. As someone who holds deep reverence for our nation’s history, I find the actions of the president both painful and inexcusable, necessitating some form of student response. We can dedicate ourselves to historical preservation by enrolling in history courses and supporting local museums, especially as they are forced to alter exhibits unfavorable to Trump.
Preserving history is arguably among the most crucial tasks of any human civilization. For as the saying goes, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Witnessing the administration desecrate a public memorial, demolish a historical landmark, purge national records and rewrite whole narratives should inspire a sense of urgency and necessity for the GW community to defend the integrity of scholarly education. Even if this topic seems far above the power of any regular college student, I urge the GW student body to visit museums, take classes in history and keep stories alive despite the dystopian initiatives of the current administration. It is imperative that we act now to take back the past if we are to secure a promising future for ourselves and future generations. As GW students, the quality of our research, the merit of our museums and the integrity of our classes rest upon it.
Ethan Vargas, a first-year majoring in political science, is an opinions writer.