Confederate Statue Reinstalled in D.C.
October 26, 2025 marked the reinstallation of the statue of a Confederate general in Washington, a part of President Trump’s broader Executive Order No. 14253, Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History. Photo courtesy of dbking via Flickr
Oct. 26 marked the reinstallation of the statue of a Confederate general in Washington, a part of President Donald Trump’s broader executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”
Confederate General Albert Pike’s statue was originally built in 1901, having been commissioned by the Freemason group he was a part of, with him depicted in civilian clothes and not his Confederate uniform. It is the only statue of a Confederate general in Washington and was torn down and burned on Juneteenth in 2020, following the George Floyd protests.
Its reinstallation is controversial amongst the American public. The location of Pike’s statue in particular raises a lot of questions as to how exactly Americans should learn about and preserve history.
“[There should be no] content that inappropriately disparage[s] Americans past or living…” according to the executive order. “...Instead [we should] focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people.”
This is a sentiment that directly ties in with Trump’s disdain for “revisionist” history, or history that is rewritten to devalue previous controversial American policies. The heart of this polarizing issue is deciding what place Confederate history should have in the US, and that is where the viewpoint of historians becomes valuable.
Marist University History Professor Dr. Nicholas Marshall brought up that while Confederate history does need to be taught and understood, learning about these generals is “...very different from celebrating their role in history by making statues and putting them on pedestals.”
This historical viewpoint is one that emphasizes the line between commemoration and education. The main idea is that “the larger story needs to be kept in mind—that this is a statue of a confederate general,” according to Marshall.
However, that acknowledgement does not need to imply public honor; instead, it can be done in a political or educational setting, such as a museum. This is especially relevant to note due to a point brought up by Dr. Robyn Rosen, that a vast majority of statues built to commemorate Confederate generals were commissioned by groups during the Jim Crow era to support white supremacy and romanticize the narrative of the “Old South.”
This circles back to the executive order itself and its title, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” Trump is combating what he refers to as the “...concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth” as cited by his executive order.
Despite claiming that he is doing this in order to bring forward a historical truth, historians such as Rosen believe that he is actually “...doing nothing to restore truth and instead wants history to serve as a pleasant fable.” Marshall shares a similar sentiment, citing the order as being “a political act to try to label his opponents as ‘un-American.’”
Through this act, Trump is directly reversing the actions of Black Lives Matter protestors and their burning of Pike’s statue by putting it back up. Many historians, such as Marshall, believe that this action has much larger implications.
Marshall said, “Trump's Executive Order aims to remove elements of the United States’ history that he perceives to be unpatriotic, which includes references to the lasting effects of racism and the institution of slavery.”