TRUMP ON HISTORY—160 YEARS AGO, 5 YEARS AGO, AND JANUARY 7, 2026.

TRUMP HAS LONG BEEN KNOWN TO PREVARICATE. To lie and go on is bad enough, but to attempt rewriting history is another matter entirely—and markedly contemptible.

Image by Flavio Pessoa Satanna for The Washington Post.

Here are tidbits gleaned from credited sources about Trump’s despicable attempts to remake history: of slavery, of the 2020 presidential election and its January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, and—as recently as last Wednesday—of the ICE killing of Rene Nicole Good.

On Slavery. Rachel Coronell Uribe and Yamiche Alcindor report, “Trump Says the Smithsonian Focuses Too Much on ‘How Bad Slavery Was,’ ” NBC News, August 19, 2025.

The NBC News duo recount, “Trump wrote on Truth Social ‘The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future’ ”

Nothing about how his father was a slum lord coddling tenement dwellers by freeing them of neighbors who are “colored.”

Victoria Hansen reports, “The Trump administration ordered the National Park Service to remove any books from its museums or gift shops that cast America in a negative light. That could include stories about slavery.”

Hansen recounts, “They are sort of winging a conservative agenda to get rid of anything that might make people feel uncomfortable or, worse still, that might make people think.”

I would hope this thinking prevails through the 2026 Midterm Elections.

Trump’s Most Egregious Historical Remake. Trump’s most horrendous actions result from his denying loss in the 2020 presidential election—and his culpability in the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021.

On the riot’s fifth anniversary, Luke Broadwater and Alan Feuer report, “White House Posts False Jan. 6 Narrative on Riot’s 5th Anniversary,” The New York Times, January 6, 2026.

Broadwater and Feuer describe, “A new web page on the official White House site blames the Capitol Police and Democrats for the pro-Trump mob riot, absolving the president of responsibility and calling participants ‘innocent.’ ”

Geez. And to think that we taxpayers are paying for this pseudo-historical tripe!

ICE’s Latest Killing. Zolan Kanno-Youngs reports, “We Pressed Trump on His Conclusion About the ICE Shooting. Here’s What He Said,” The New York Times, January 8, 2026: “Just hours after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday, Mr. Trump told a group of New York Times reporters that the woman was at fault because she had tried to ‘run over’ the officer.”

Presidential aide Natalie Harp shows a video of the Minneapolis fatal shooting. Image by Doug Mills/The New York Times. 

Kanno-Youngs writes, “The exchange was a glimpse into Mr. Trump’s reflexive defense of what has become a sometimes violent federal crackdown on immigration, which in this case claimed the life of an American citizen who was protesting ICE’s presence in Minneapolis. On Thursday, after our interview with the president, a Times analysis of footage from three camera angles showed the motorist was driving away from—not toward—a federal officer when he opened fire.”

Yet, Trump says, “She behaved horribly. And then she ran him over. She didn’t try to run him over. She ran him over.”

What??

Shrai Popat, Marina Dunbar, and Tom Ambrose report “Trump Administration Vehemently Defends ICE Agent Who Killed U.S. Citizen in Minneapolis,” The Guardian, January 8, 2026: “Vice-president JD Vance appeared at the White House news briefing today, and repeated claims that the ICE agent who killed Renee Nicole Macklin Good was acting in ‘self-defense.’ Vance said that Good, 37, was ‘dead because she tried to ram somebody with her car,’ and claimed, baselessly, that she was part of a ‘left wing network’ of people trying to incite violence against federal law enforcement officers.”

The Guardian reporters continue, “At a press conference in New York today, homeland security secretary Kristi Noem continued to say that the shooting was in response to an ‘act of domestic terrorism.’ ”

Furthermore, they recount, “As demonstrations in response to Wednesday’s shooting continue throughout the state [indeed, throughout the U.S.], attorney general Pam Bondi warned protesting Minnesotans to ‘not test our resolve.’ ”

“Ran him over”? “Left wing network”? “Domestic terrorism”? “Not test our resolve”? 

To quote Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey: “bullshit.” 

It’s well past the time when we should acquiesce to Trump and his mob attempting to remake history. Wake up, Congress! Wake up, America! ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2026