Trump’s Anniversaries: Selective, Like His Truth.

Published on: Sat, 04 Jul 2026 09:00:19 GMT
Original Story: When It Comes to Anniversaries, Trump Is No Gerald Ford – New York Magazine

Okay, people, gather ’round, because today we’re diving into a topic that, frankly, makes my eye twitch: anniversaries. Not the fun kind with cake and questionable party games, but the ones that mark significant, often somber, historical events. You know, those moments where we’re supposed to reflect, learn, and maybe, just maybe, acknowledge that time actually progresses in a linear fashion for most of us. Apparently, that memo never made it to Mar-a-Lago.

The news this week, courtesy of New York Magazine, helpfully pointed out that when it comes to commemorating historical milestones, Donald J. Trump is decidedly *not* a Gerald Ford. And honestly, bless their hearts for even attempting to draw that comparison. It’s like saying a dumpster fire isn’t quite a Michelin-starred restaurant. Technically true, but the gulf is so vast it almost feels like a philosophical exercise in futility.

Ford, God rest his soul, was the guy who had the unenviable task of trying to stitch a nation back together after Nixon’s spectacular unraveling. He delivered speeches about healing, about learning from the past, about moving forward while acknowledging the scars. Trump? Trump uses anniversaries like a personal historical Etch A Sketch, shaking it vigorously to erase inconvenient truths and redraw the narrative entirely to serve his immediate, often self-aggrandizing, purposes. It’s less about reflection and more about revision. And frankly, after years in this corporate hellscape, the sheer audacity of it still manages to chafe.

The Great Historical Eraser: A Trumpian Tradition

Let’s be real, remembering things accurately isn’t exactly a cornerstone of the Trump brand. We’ve seen it time and again. Facts are fluid, timelines are suggestions, and yesterday’s firm stance is today’s forgotten utterance. But anniversaries, bless their little hearts, are stubborn. They pop up annually, demanding attention, forcing a moment of reckoning with what *actually* happened. For most political figures, this is an opportunity to show gravitas, humility, or at least a passing acquaintance with a history book. For Trump, it’s a prompt to either ignore it entirely, pivot to grievance, or, my personal favorite, declare that whatever happened, he did it better or would have prevented it entirely.

It’s less about honoring history and more about bending it into a pretzel shape that fits his current narrative. We’re not talking about subtle reinterpretations here; we’re talking about full-blown historical gaslighting, where the past is just a draft awaiting his final, self-serving edits. And if you dare to remember the original version? Well, that’s just fake news, isn’t it?

The “Remember When?” Trap: A Former President’s Kryptonite

The beauty (and inherent danger) of anniversaries for someone like Trump is that they often necessitate a “remember when?” moment. A look back at a previous policy, a former statement, a past event. And nothing, I mean *nothing*, sends a shiver down the spine of a perpetually self-correcting, reality-optional politician quite like being forced to confront their own prior pronouncements. It’s the ultimate accountability mechanism for those who prefer to operate in a fact-free zone, where every day is a fresh start and inconvenient truths magically vanish into the ether.

Consider, if you will, the sheer volume of “I never said that” followed by readily available video evidence to the contrary. Or the classic “everyone knows that” applied to something patently false. This isn’t just a quirky habit; it’s a deliberate strategy to control the narrative, to ensure that the only ‘truth’ that matters is the one being spoken *right now*. And anniversaries? They’re just speed bumps on the highway of self-aggrandizement, easily navigated by a skilled driver of historical revisionism.

Case Study: NATO – From “Obsolete” to “My Masterpiece”

If you’re looking for a prime example of Trump’s anniversary-defying, history-bending gymnastics, look no further than his ever-evolving relationship with NATO. This isn’t just a casual shift; it’s a full-on ideological U-turn executed with the grace of a semi-truck doing donuts in a cul-de-sac. And it perfectly encapsulates his approach to inconvenient historical context.

Cast your mind back, if your brain hasn’t already dissolved from the sheer volume of daily absurdity, to **2016**. During his campaign, Donald Trump, with all the diplomatic finesse of a bull in a china shop, repeatedly declared the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to be “obsolete.” He lambasted European allies for not paying their “fair share,” questioned the very premise of collective defense, and openly mused about whether the U.S. should even come to the aid of a NATO member under attack. He was, to put it mildly, not a fan. He saw it as a drain, a relic of a bygone era, something to be discarded like a stale bag of chips.

Fast forward a few years, and particularly now, with Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine reshaping the geopolitical landscape. What’s Trump’s stance on NATO these days? Oh, it’s a wonder to behold. Suddenly, he’s the guy who “fixed” NATO, who “made it strong again,” who single-handedly forced deadbeat allies to pony up. He’ll take credit for increased defense spending by member states (which, let’s be clear, was a trend pre-dating his presidency and was accelerated by Russia’s aggression, not solely his cajoling). He’ll imply that without him, NATO would have crumbled into dust, a mere historical footnote.

The man who called it obsolete now postures as its savior, often while simultaneously threatening to abandon allies if he returns to office. It’s a breathtaking display of cognitive dissonance, a historical sleight of hand so brazen it almost demands a standing ovation for its sheer chutzpah. An anniversary of NATO’s founding, or a significant event within its history, would undoubtedly be met with a monologue about how *he* made it great, conveniently omitting his prior pronouncements that it was, in fact, terrible and useless. The past, in this paradigm, is not a fixed point but a malleable resource, shaped and reshaped to burnish the current image, no matter how wildly contradictory.

The Perpetual Present: Where Facts Go to Die

This isn’t just about NATO, of course. It’s a pervasive pattern. Whether it’s his shifting stance on healthcare, his ever-changing relationship with figures he once praised or condemned, or his re-writing of the history of his own administration’s achievements and failures, the underlying mechanism is the same: the perpetual present. In this worldview, only what is being said *right now* holds currency. Yesterday’s statements are irrelevant. Today’s narrative is paramount. And if those two things collide, well, you’re just remembering it wrong, aren’t you?

It’s a strategy designed to disorient, to make critical thinking exhausting, and to ultimately render objective truth meaningless. If you can’t trust what was said yesterday, how can you make informed decisions about today or tomorrow? It’s the political equivalent of living in a choose-your-own-adventure book where the author constantly rewrites the previous pages based on your current choice, and then blames you for being confused.

And for us Elder Millennials, slogging through this daily grind, it just adds another layer of existential dread to our already overflowing plates. We remember a time when facts were… well, facts. When politicians, even when they lied, at least tried to maintain a semblance of consistency. Now? It’s a free-for-all, and anniversaries are just another casualty in the war on collective memory.

The Real Toll: Erosion of Trust and Reality

Beyond the eye-rolls and the snark, this constant revisionism has real consequences. When a significant portion of the populace is consistently told that what they remember, what they witnessed, and what was widely reported is actually false, it erodes trust in institutions, in media, and in the very fabric of shared reality. It creates a fertile ground for misinformation and makes it incredibly difficult to have a productive national conversation about anything, let alone the complexities of history.

So, the next time an anniversary rolls around, and you hear a certain former president spinning a tale that bears little resemblance to actual events, just remember: he’s not trying to educate you. He’s trying to sell you a different version of the past, tailor-made for the present. And it’s our collective responsibility, however exhausting, to hold onto those inconvenient truths, even when they’re being aggressively memory-holed.

Snarky Takeaway

Look, expecting a consistent narrative from certain political figures these days is like expecting a coherent plot from a fever dream. Anniversaries are just inconvenient reminders of a linear timeline, which clearly doesn’t align with the “whatever I say today is truth” philosophy. So, for the love of all that is sacred, bookmark those historical facts, because they’re being actively edited in real-time. Your brain cells will thank you for the cognitive workout.