Rep. Jamie Raskin Calls Trump’s Authoritarianism a ‘Nightmare’

Appearing Wednesday on CNN’s “The Source,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said he wants the Smithsonian to preserve President Donald Trump’s “propaganda” as part of a historical record documenting what he called America’s authoritarian “nightmare.”

Host Kaitlan Collins noted that Raskin had introduced legislation directing the Smithsonian to retain items he has labeled Trump propaganda, including banners featuring the president’s face displayed at the Labor Department, the Justice Department and other federal buildings in Washington. She asked why he believed those materials should be preserved.

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Raskin said the country would eventually move beyond the current period, but argued that historians and archivists should document it accurately. He accused Trump and his supporters of trying to erase or reshape the nation’s history, pointing to what he described as attacks on the Smithsonian and the National Museum of American History. Raskin said efforts to limit lessons about slavery, the Civil War and the civil rights movement reflected a broader attempt to suppress the country’s “great civilizing struggles.”

Rather than conceal Trump’s record, Raskin said, the nation should preserve it and use it to educate future generations about authoritarianism in America. He suggested turning the large banners displayed on the Labor and Justice Department buildings into museum exhibits, alongside other artifacts from what he called a “wretched period” marked by attacks on national unity and Trump’s highly personalized political imagery. The goal, he said, would be to ensure the period is remembered and never repeated.