The 1776 Report

The 1776 Report is a propaganda piece written by the 1776 Commission, published in the last few days of the Trump administration.The 1776 Report (January 2021) Trump White House Archives. Its purpose is to facilitate "patriotic education" — that is, to help brainwash American students with white supremacist and rabidly anti-liberal/anti-communist version of US history in line with the conservative correctness agenda.
==History==
The 1776 Commission was an advisory committee established by Trump. Trump had referenced "patriotic education" as a priority of his several times in the autumn of 2020,NBC News: "Trump pushes for 'patriotic education' in schools" (Updated: Sep 2, 2020 / 06:38 AM EDT) NBC4i.Proclamation on the Birthday of Founding Father Caesar Rodney Trump White House Archives. and likely established the commission within months before the end of his term. The establishment of the Commission (and the eventual publication of the Report) was seemingly a response to the Black Lives Matter movement in general and The New York Times' 1619 Project in particular;Hostages No More: The Fight for Education Freedom and the Future of the American Child by Betsy DeVos (2022) Center Street. ISBN 1546002014.With his 1776 Commission on patriotism, Trump helped spark a culture war: Trump attempted to use federal power to define how America’s history is taught — and promises to try again. by Laura Meckler (September 2, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT) The Washington Post. the latter being a collection of essays that frame American history in the context of Black slavery and civil rights movements.
The Commission was disbanded and the Report was revoked on President Joe Biden's inauguration day.AP News: "Biden revokes Trump report promoting 'patriotic education'"
===Members of the Commission===
The Commission did not have any professional historians who specialized in United States history.Trump's 1776 Commission Critiques Liberalism in Report Derided by Historians: The report charges that Americans are being indoctrinated with a false narrative of the nation's founding and identity, including the role of slavery in its history. by Michael Crowley & Jennifer Schuessler (Published Jan. 18, 2021; Updated Jan. 20, 2021), The New York Times. A few members are tangentially qualified - a few academics here, a constitutional lawyer there - but most are pundits or politicians. The Commission included:
The Report included no scholarly citations, and it was not stated which of the commission members were the primary author(s).
==Contents==
The report distorts fact, spews outright lies, doesn't cite sources, and engages in large-scale Red-baiting, especially in the later portions.NYT Dissection (via Internet Archive) This section will analyze it chapter by chapter.
===Chapter IV: Challenge to America's principles===
==As Scholarship==
To call this report "scholarship" is to insult the word itself by comparing it to the 1776 Commission. The document is only forty-five pages, which is absurdly light for a document that purports to be about more than two centuries of history. When people started looking at what was in the report, many found it to be a sloppy copy-and-pasting of other works by those involved with little effort put into their placement.https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/19/trump-1776-report-plagiarism-460464
==The return of 1776==
In 2023, the Trump campaign announced a surprisingly detailed education agenda called Agenda47, which includes the reinstatement of the 1776 Commission that created the report.Agenda47: President Trump’s Ten Principles For Great Schools Leading To Great Jobs (September 13, 2023) Donald J. Trump.
==Summary==
==See also==
*The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, which in part would eviscerate the Department of Education if Trump returns to office.
==References==
Category:2024 US presidential election
Category:Conservative deceit
Category:Documents
Category:Propaganda
Category:Pseudohistory
Category:Trumpism
Category:United States history