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The1776 Commission, also nicknamed the1776 Project,[1][2] is anadvisory committee established in September 2020 by then-U.S. PresidentDonald Trump to support what he called "patriotic education".[3] The commission releasedThe 1776 Report on January 18, 2021, two days before the end of Trump's term of office.[4] Historians overwhelmingly criticized the report, saying it was "filled with errors and partisan politics".[3][5] The commission was terminated by the successive PresidentJoe Biden on January 20, 2021, his first day in office.[6][7][8] It was re-established by Trump in January 2025.[9]
The commission was conceived partly as a response toThe New York Times'1619 Project,[10] which deals withsystemic racism and explores American history through an African-American framework.[11][12] The first publication from the 1619 Project was inThe New York Times Magazine in August 2019.[13]
Trump first spoke of giving students a "patriotic education" on September 2, 2020,[14][15] and announced the new commission in a speech on September 17, 2020, in which he contended that a "twisted web of lies" regarding systemic racism was currently being taught in U.S. schools, calling it "a form of child abuse."[11] He reiterated his intention to establish the commission in a proclamation on October 6, 2020.[16]
Various federal laws prohibit the federal government from directly regulating school curricula, which are determined by school districts under rules established by state governments. However, the federal government influences state and local decisions through funding.[17]
On November 2, the day before the2020 elections, Trump officially established the commission byexecutive order.[18][19] Trump appointed the commission's members on December 18, 2020,[20][21][22][23] and the commission held its first meeting on January 5, 2021.[24]
Under the executive order, Trump established an 18-member group[3] serving a two-year term appointed by the president, which was to write a report on "core principles of the American founding and how these principles may be understood to further enjoyment of 'the blessings of liberty'".[25]
The commission's goal was to end what it calls the "radicalized view of American history" which has "vilified [the United States'] Founders and [its] founding".[19] In response to the work of figures likeHoward Zinn and groups like the 1619 Project, the 1776 Commission sought to increase "patriotic education" via a centralized (federal) approach to anationalist curriculum.[26] This effort is linked to Trump's wider attacks oncritical race theory.[27][28]
The commission was also intended to promote these concepts atnational parks, landmarks, and monuments among other federal properties, and federal agencies were instructed to provide grants and initiatives in a way that prioritized those supporting "the American Founding".[25]
The 18-member commission was composed of conservative activists, politicians, and intellectuals, and included no professional experts in American history.[3] Trump appointed the Commission's members on December 18, 2020.[20] The chair wasLarry Arnn, the president of conservativeHillsdale College, and the co-chair wasCarol Swain, aBlack conservative and a former professor atVanderbilt Law School.[3] Other appointees included his former domestic policy advisorBrooke Rollins;Charles R. Kesler, aClaremont Graduate University professor and editor of the conservative journalClaremont Review of Books;Ned Ryun, a Bush speechwriter;Charlie Kirk, founder ofTurning Point USA;Phil Bryant, Republican formergovernor of Mississippi;[3][29] classical historianVictor Davis Hanson;John Gibbs, a former Trump appointee;Scott McNealy, founder of online curriculum company Curikki;Peter Kirsanow, a black Civil Rights Commission member;Thomas Lindsay, a political science professor;Michael Farris, a lawyer and political science professor; and former CongressmanBob McEwen.[20] Trump also selected then-Housing and Urban Development SecretaryBen Carson to serve on the committee.[30]
The commission released the 41-page "The 1776 Report" on January 18, 2021, two days before the end of Trump's term and theinauguration of Joe Biden.[29] The report does not include citations or footnotes, and does not identify its main authors.[3] About half the pages in the report were appendices.[31]
Among other things, the document identifies "progressivism" and "racism andidentity politics" as "challenges to America's principles" and likens them to "communism," "slavery," and "fascism." It refers to the pro-slavery U.S. politician and former U.S. vice presidentJohn C. Calhoun as "the leading forerunner ofidentity politics" and criticizes some aspects of thecivil rights movement.[5][32][33] The document also describes American universities as "often today [...] hotbeds ofanti-Americanism, libel, and censorship" and criticizesfeminist movements.[33] It concludes with recommendations to promote positive stories and images of the country's founders at home, in schools, and in the arts, among other things.[32][34]
Historians condemned the report, saying it was "filled with errors and partisan politics",[3][5] factual inaccuracies, a lack of scholarship, and use of prior work without attribution.[35] TheAmerican Historical Association (AHA), in a statement cosigned by 33 other historical societies, stated that the report was completed "without any consultation with professional historians of the United States".[36] On January 19, 2021, theAssociation of University Presses released a statement: "While we leave it to historians to offer a detailed rebuttal of the document's inaccuracies – if any should choose to do so – we note that it is plagued by procedural deficiencies that would render it unpublishable as a serious work of scholarship."[37]
James Grossman, the executive director of the AHA, criticized Trump's push for so-called "patriotic education", writing that genuinely patriotic history is a rigorous effort to study the past honestly and acknowledge complexity, rather than "cheerleading", "nationalist propaganda", or "simplistic and inaccurate narrative of unique virtue and perpetual progress".[38] Grossman described the 1776 Commission's report as "a hack job" that was "not a work of history" but of "cynical politics".[5] Grossman said, "This report skillfully weaves together myths, distortions, deliberate silences, and both blatant and subtle misreading of evidence to create a narrative and an argument that few respectable professional historians, even across a wide interpretive spectrum, would consider plausible, never mind convincing."[3]
HistorianTimothy Messer-Kruse likened the content of the report to "every moldy trope of 1950s fifth-grade civics books" and wrote that it misrepresented the beliefs of founding fatherJohn Jay as expressed inFederalist No. 2.[39] HistorianEric Rauchway criticized the report for misreadingJohn Winthrop's "City upon a Hill" speech and for the report's claims regarding the civil rights movement. Historian Alexis Coe, a biographer ofGeorge Washington, said the report was riddled with "errors, distortions, and outright lies" and mischaracterizedWashington's involvement with slavery.Kevin M. Kruse and other historians criticized the report for suggesting thatMartin Luther King Jr. would have opposedaffirmative action, noting that King in fact endorsed affirmative action during his life.[5][40] Even historians who were critical of the 1619 Project, such asSean Wilentz ofPrinceton University, criticized the report of the 1776 Commission. Wilentz described the report as "the flip side of thosepolemics" and "basically a political document" that "reduces history to hero worship".[5]
Historians also noted that portions of the report had been copied without attribution from earlier writings by its authors, including a 2008op-ed byThomas Lindsay published inInside Higher Ed and a 2002Heritage Foundation essay andIntercollegiate Studies Institute essay by Matthew Spalding, the commission's executive director.[35]
CommentatorEugene Scott criticized the commission's report for suggesting "that identity politics is something unique to those outside of the Trump administration"; Scott writes that Trump's rhetoric andTrumpism "has been rooted in identity politics": specifically, a prioritization of demographic groups that are "largelyWhite, Christian and appealing to traditional gender norms".[41] Writing forSlate, Rebecca Onion described the report as "a screed forwarded by aFox-poisoned aunt, one that might best be politely ignored" and noted historianDiana Butler Bass's fear that the report was "'a huge gift' to white evangelical Trump supporters, who have long taught this vision of history to children who are enrolled in Christian schools or home-schooled."[42] Jeff Sharlet ofVanity Fair compared the report's section on identity politics to Norwegian terroristAnders Behring Breivik's justification for the2011 Norway attacks in his manifesto2083: A European Declaration of Independence.[43]
Commission membersVictor Davis Hanson and Mike Gonzalez defended the report. Hanson argued that the report did not "whitewash the continuance of many injustices" in U.S. history and defended the report's declaration that "progressivism" was at odds with American values,[44] while Gonzalez, a senior fellow of the Heritage Foundation, criticized media coverage of the report and argued that Biden's disbanding of the commission was an outcome of "thewoke left" waging a "war on U.S. history."[45]
On January 20, 2021, hours after he was inaugurated as Trump's successor, PresidentJoe Biden issued an executive order dissolving the 1776 Commission.[46] The report was removed from the White House website,[47] although theNational Archives and Records Administration archived the report, along with the entire Trump White House website.[48]
In May 2021, Matthew Spalding, the commission's executive director, announced the commission would resume its activities in a non-governmental capacity.[49][50]
In November 2021,Jake Silverstein noted in an article forThe New York Times that state level anti-critical race theory laws that had passed following the 1776 Commission's end contained language and intent similar to the 1776 Commission's final report.[51]
1776 Action, a501(c)(4) group headed by Republican operatives that was formed after the dissolution of the 1776 Commission, takes its name from the Commission. The group, led by former aides toBen Carson andNewt Gingrich, promotes what it calls "patriotic education" and says that it aims to combat "anti-American indoctrination"; it proposes a Trump-inspired "1776 pledge" for officials and candidates. The group has promoted an anti-"critical race theory" bill that passed in New Hampshire, and endorsed candidates in the2021 Virginia gubernatorial election and in school-board races in Iowa.[52][53][54]
The2024 Republican Party Platform promises to resurrect the 1776 Commission.[55]
On January 29th, 2025 Donald Trump issuedExecutive Order 14190 which reinstated the 1776 Commission.[56]
Despite King's vocal advocacy for affirmative action, the 1776 report bizarrely holds him up as the antithesis of those programs and "identity politics" writ large.
Republicans will reinstate the 1776 Commission...
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