Trump's Heritage Politics: Using Architecture and History to Shape America's Identity

The Trump administration has been actively promoting its own brand of "heritage politics," using architecture, history, and memory to shape America's identity in its image. This approach is rooted in the long tradition of authoritarian regimes using monumental architecture to project power, control memory, and shape national identity. By pushing for a return to classical and traditional architectural styles, and seeking to roll back inclusive historical narratives, the Trump administration is targeting not just buildings but the stories they tell, and using its power to control the narrative of American history.

Key Takeaways:

• The Trump administration has issued an executive order declaring classical and traditional architectural styles the "preferred" design for new federal buildings, effectively deriding Brutalist and modernist structures as inconsistent with national values.
• The administration is seeking to roll back inclusive historical narratives at U.S. parks and monuments, and reviving sanitized myths about America's history of slavery, misogyny, and Manifest Destiny for use in museums, textbooks, and public schools.
• The demolition of the White House East Wing to build a ballroom, undertaken without consulting historians and preservation experts or opening the project to public comment, is the latest illustration of the administration's unilateral and unaccountable approach to shaping America's architectural heritage.
• The Trump administration has adopted many recommendations in the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 blueprint, which calls for repealing the 1906 Antiquities Act and shrinking many existing monuments, undercutting the framework that has safeguarded places like Devils Tower in Wyoming and Muir Woods in California for over a century.
• The administration's approach to heritage politics seeks to redefine America's story and determine who gets to speak, and has been criticized by the American Institute of Architects, which has publicly opposed the administration's ideology-driven approach to design.

Statistics:

• 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which according to the Trump administration justifies the construction of a triumphal arch in Arlington, Virginia (Source: Trump administration proposal).
• 17th-century French statesman Jean-Baptiste Colbert's observation that "in the absence of brilliant deeds of war, nothing proclaims the greatness and spirit of princes more than building works."
• 1906 Antiquities Act, which empowers presidents to quickly designate national monuments on federal land, and is being targeted for repeal by the Trump administration (Source: Project 2025).

Sources:

• The Trump administration's executive order declaring classical and traditional architectural styles the "preferred" design for new federal buildings (Source: Trump administration document).
• The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 blueprint (Source: Heritage Foundation report).
• The American Institute of Architects' opposition to the Trump administration's ideology-driven approach to design (Source: AIA statement).
• The article "Demolishing the White House East Wing to build a ballroom embodies Trump's heritage politics" by R. Grant Gilmore III (Source: The Conversation).
• The 1906 Antiquities Act (Source: Government document).
• The National Park Service's management of Devils Tower in Wyoming and Muir Woods in California (Source: NPS website).