The History, Archives, and Records Preservation Project (HARPP) has released “The Federal Assault on History: A Record of Executive Actions,” the first comprehensive report documenting and analyzing the Trump administration’s sweeping effort since January 2025 to reshape how the American past is recorded, preserved, and shared with the public.

Organized by federal agency and category of action, such as the censorship and erasure, attacks on public institutions, and the promotion of “patriotic” history, the 70-plus-page report functions as an accessible reference guide for journalists, policymakers, and the public seeking to track specific intiatives by the White House targeting evidence-based and accurate history.

The HARPP scholars draw on executive orders, agency directives, federal budget records, court filings, and FOIA data to document the systemic campaign to control the production and public presentation of U.S. history. 

The report identifies three interlocking strategies originating at the highest levels of the executive branch: the censorship and erasure of histories disfavored by the Trump administration; the weakening of archives, museums, universities, and grant programs that sustain historical work; and the imposition of a state-directed “patriotic” narrative lacking professional historical standards.

The report documents the intentional degradation of the federal infrastructure that preserves government records, processes Freedom of Information Act requests, funds community archives, and maintains the documentary basis for democratic accountability. It further examines the sweep and scale of the federal assault on history, for example, showing how colleges, universities, and public funding streams for historical research have come under sustained pressure, with institutions facing threats to federal funding tied to ideological compliance. This creates a chilling effect on academic freedom, research priorities, and the teaching of American history. 

“If current trends continue, future generations of historians will find sources that have been lost, altered, or rendered inaccessible, and that the institutional capacity to accurately interpret them has been weakened if not dismantled entirely,” said Beth English, executive director of the Organization of American Historians and a report co-author. “What’s at stake is the integrity of the institutions, practices, and professional standards that make American democracy and government accountability possible.”

When American institutions are weakened or politicized, the authors observe, journalists lose access to government records, citizens lose the ability to hold officials accountable, and future generations inherit a deliberately incomplete historical record.

The report “provides a foundation for further research, advocacy, and response,” the authors write, asserting that democracy depends on accessible records, independent scholarly inquiry, and citizens’ ability to engage critically with the past, and that by undermining these foundations, the administration’s campaign against history weakens the basis on which informed public participation is built. 

HARPP is a collaborative effort of professional historians dedicated to safeguarding historical accuracy and preserving public access to vital records, coordinated by the OAH.