Will Confederate Monuments Return Under Donald Trump?

It’s a question that many are wondering about, especially in the Confederate heritage community. The last decade has not been kind to folks who still maintain that symbols of the Confederacy best represent their respective communities and that tax dollars should be used to maintain them.

I’ve gone as far to suggest that the Lost Cause—as it relates to the question of how to utilize our public spaces to commemorate the past—is dead. I still believe this is the case. There has been no significant backlash against the removal of Confederate monuments and other symbols.

It is doubtful whether Trump will have any impact on this trend.

The Virginia Flaggers and others, however, certainly hope that he will lead the charge.

(Source: Facebook)

Others are looking forward to a public statement from the president or even an executive order to return a Confederate monument to Arlington National Cemetery, which was removed in December 2023.

(Source: Twitter/X)

It’s laughable that the Confederate heritage community sees a New York City businessman (and a corrupt one at that) as their ‘last best hope’ to defend the Lost Cause and what remains of its public symbols. Trump is exactly what white Southerners feared and worked to distinguish themselves from in defending their slaveholding society in the years leading to the Civil War.

But more to the point, Trump has never really cared about the history and memory of the Confederacy. This is the same person who gave us such greatest hits as “Never Fight Uphill Me Boys.” His views on the Confederate flag, for example, have followed his own evolving political identity. His rhetoric about Robert E. Lee, Confederate monuments and the flag is nothing more than political fodder fed to a select group of his constituents.

Here he is in 2015 calling for the Confederate flag on the State House grounds in Columbia, South Carolina to be removed.

We all know the extent to which his position has shifted since 2017.

In regards to Arlington National Cemetery, it is not at all clear to me that he has the authority to order it returned to its original location or reverse the decision to change the name of military bases named after Confederate officers. The removal of that particular monument and the name changes was authorized and approved by Congress through the work of The Naming Commission.

Then there is the question of the physical condition of the monument itself, which was removed in pieces and placed in storage.

But beyond that, it’s important to remember that the vast majority of monuments and flags that have come down from public spaces since 2015 are the result of decisions made at the local and state level. It is unlikely that communities that have worked through these divisive issues will revisit them in the next few years.

Don’t get me wrong. President Trump will likely make even more confusing statements about the Confederacy and the Civil War in the coming years that will leave historians and others baffled, but I don’t see it leading to any significant reversal of the transformation of our public commemorative landscapes.

If anything, it should be interpreted as additional evidence of the Lost Cause’s defeat in the public square.

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Rather than spending his political capital on calling for the return of Confederate monuments, I expect that President Trump will be more focused on shaping the ongoing 250th commemoration of the American Revolution. Important anniversaries later this year and especially next year’s marking of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence will take place during the Trump presidency.

We all remember the 1776 Commission and Report, which Trump created in response to the popularity of The 1619 Project at the end of his first term. The question of how to understand and teach this period of American history, and the importance of subjects like slavery and race, has been incredibly divisive over the past few years.

Perhaps Trump’s administration will attempt to co-op the America250 commission or create an entirely new one to oversee events. We will also likely see attempts to further restrict and censor teachers in the classroom. Once again, however, it is important to remember that most of the work of commemorating this semiquincentennial anniversary is taking place at the local and state level.

Federal funding may be an issue for some organizations moving forward, but to the extent that Americans experience some aspect of this anniversary, it will happen through their local communities.

Historians, public historians, and history educators will certainly have their hands full for the next four years, but we need to think carefully about how to prioritize the many challenges that will likely come down the road.

The return of Confederate monuments to our public spaces is, most definitely, not one of them.