Donald Trump wants to rewrite history by silencing museums that teach the truth about slavery. That is not leadership, it is dictatorship. When Trump rails against the Smithsonian and other museums as “woke” for teaching how brutal slavery was, he is not just throwing around a campaign insult. He is signaling that he wants to decide what version of history Americans are allowed to see. That is not a new impulse. It is a strategy as old as dictatorship itself. For generations, authoritarian leaders have tried to control memory by controlling cultural institutions. They understood that museums are not just about the past. They are about who gets to define the future.

Why Dictators Attack Museums

Museums tell stories about identity, belonging, and morality. They frame what a society chooses to celebrate and what it chooses to regret. This is why dictators have always treated them as political tools. If you can reshape or censor the story a museum tells, you can reshape the way people think about themselves, their country, and their leaders. That is why we should take Trump’s threats against museums seriously. He is following a well-worn authoritarian playbook.

Adolf Hitler and the Purge of “Degenerate Art”

Adolf Hitler was obsessed with museums. He looted countless artworks from Jewish families and occupied nations. He mocked modernist works in exhibitions of “Degenerate Art,” ridiculing anything that did not align with his racial ideology. At the same time, he dreamed of building the Führermuseum in Linz, Austria, which would glorify “Aryan” art and erase all that he considered inferior. Hitler understood museums as powerful cultural weapons. They were not places for the free exchange of ideas. They were stages for his propaganda.

Joseph Stalin and the Erasure of Rivals

In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin turned museums into propaganda halls. Historical figures like Leon Trotsky, who had once shaped the revolution, vanished from exhibits. Museums were rewritten to glorify Stalin’s industrial plans and to present him as the inevitable father of Soviet progress. Displays that contradicted the official story were stripped out or reinterpreted. Soviet citizens visiting museums were not encountering an honest view of history. They were encountering Stalin’s curated version of reality.

Benito Mussolini and the Return of Rome

In Italy, Benito Mussolini used museums and ruins to link Fascism to the glory of the Roman Empire. He reorganized the Roman Forum to stage Fascist parades and curated exhibitions of Roman antiquities to imply continuity between Caesar and himself. For Mussolini, museums were about reviving a mythical past to legitimize his rule. They were meant to convince Italians that he was not merely a politician, but the reincarnation of imperial destiny.

Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution

Mao Zedong’s approach to museums was one of destruction and transformation. During the Cultural Revolution, countless artifacts were smashed, museums were closed, and cultural treasures were lost. Those that survived were repurposed to serve Communist propaganda. Even the Forbidden City was reframed as the Palace Museum, stripped of imperial meaning and used to reinforce the narrative of people’s revolution. Mao’s message was clear. The past had value only if it served the revolution.

Francisco Franco and the Museum of National Unity

In Spain, Francisco Franco allowed museums to operate, but they told a narrow story. Exhibits glorified Catholic nationalism and Franco’s victory in the Spanish Civil War. Regional histories, such as those of Catalonia and the Basque Country, were suppressed. Museums became spaces where dissent was erased and only the image of a unified, Catholic Spain was permitted. Franco understood that museums could cement his version of national identity while silencing diversity.

Augusto Pinochet and Museums of Silence

Chile’s Augusto Pinochet did not glorify museums the way Hitler or Mussolini did, but he controlled them all the same. Exhibitions that might criticize his dictatorship were censored. Cultural institutions were stripped of political meaning and forced into silence. They were depoliticized by force, which under a dictatorship meant compliance. Ironically, after his fall, Chilean museums became crucial in remembering victims of his state violence, reclaiming the very role Pinochet tried to erase.

Saddam Hussein and Mesopotamian Grandeur

Saddam Hussein used museums to glorify himself. He poured money into archaeological projects and museum displays that linked him to ancient Mesopotamian rulers. He styled himself as a modern Nebuchadnezzar, positioning his dictatorship as the natural heir to Iraq’s ancient civilizations. In this case, museums were not silenced or destroyed. They were inflated with propaganda that served Saddam’s cult of personality.

Trump’s Place in the Pattern and Democracy

Donald Trump’s latest attack on the Smithsonian fits squarely within the authoritarian tradition. By calling the teaching of slavery “woke,” he signals that he wants museums to erase America’s injustices and focus only on triumphs. He wants to replace memory with myth, pain with flattery, truth with propaganda. That is not patriotism. It is censorship.

When Trump says he will send attorneys to go after museums, he is not making a small cultural complaint. He is attempting to police what knowledge Americans can access. It mirrors his broader campaign against books in schools and diversity in universities. It is all part of the same project: to restrict history to a version that flatters him and his followers, and to silence narratives that challenge it.

In a democracy, museums are meant to be sites of honesty and complexity. They should allow us to see the full story, including the parts that are difficult. The brutality of slavery, the resilience of enslaved people, and the long struggle for freedom are central to understanding America. Without them, the story is not only incomplete. It is false.

Democratic nations need museums that preserve uncomfortable truths. They remind us of where we have failed and where we must do better. They provide evidence that cannot be rewritten by political rhetoric. That is why authoritarian leaders always target them. A people who cannot remember the truth are easier to control.

Choosing Memory Over Myth and Politics

Governor Gavin Newsom was right when he said to Trump, “Your dictatorship is showing.” in a recent Tweet about Trump’s attacks on the Smithsonian. The attack on museums is not a side issue. It is a window into how Trump views power. He does not want to argue with history. He wants to rewrite it.

History has already taught us what happens when dictators control museums. Hitler erased modern art. Stalin erased his rivals. Mussolini staged Rome. Mao destroyed artifacts. Franco silenced diversity. Pinochet censored dissent. Saddam glorified himself. Trump’s threat to silence museums that teach the truth about slavery belongs on that same list.

The choice before us is simple. Do we want a nation that faces its history honestly, or a nation that allows politicians to erase it? Democracy depends on memory, even when it is painful. Dictatorship thrives on myth.

If Donald Trump succeeds in turning museums into propaganda halls, America will lose more than artifacts. We will lose our ability to tell the truth about who we are. That is a cost no democracy can afford.

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Julian Vasquez Heilig is a nationally recognized policy scholar, public intellectual, and civil rights advocate. A trusted voice in public policy, he has testified for state legislatures, the U.S. Congress, the United Nations, and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, while also advising presidential and gubernatorial campaigns. His work has been cited by major outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times, and he has appeared on networks from MSNBC and PBS to NPR and DemocracyNow!. He is a recipient of more than 30 honors, including the 2025 NAACP Keeper of the Flame Award, Vasquez Heilig brings both scholarly rigor and grassroots commitment to the fight for equity and justice.