This week, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which has been ruthlessly gutted and taken over by the Trump administration, announced a new project via their agency newsletter: Freedom Trucks. Freedom Trucks are six mobile exhibits intended to crisscross the country and “share the story of our nation’s founding” to celebrate America’s 250th birthday in 2026.
As cool as a series of mobile history exhibits is in theory, there’s a lot more to unpack with this particular initiative. Freedom Trucks is a work of propaganda that promises to tell only one side of American history, promote only one set of so-called American values, and change the function of a federal agency whose role has been to work directly with public institutions across the US.
Freedom Trucks epitomize where and how the IMLS has been turned into a machine for the authoritarian regime, even as its future as an agency is uncertain.
 Screenshot of the announcement of Freedom Trucks as shared by the IMLS |
First: a little context related to the IMLS. When Trump issued his Executive Order “Continuing the Reduction of Federal Bureaucracy” on March 14, he demanded that the IMLS, along with several other agencies, be reduced to their statutory functions. The IMLS is the agency through which grant money is passed from the federal government to local and state organizations. Statutory functions for the IMLS include the Grants to States program, which provides millions to state libraries nationwide to support programs within their state. For many, this grant money helps defray the costs of interlibrary loans, digital material subscriptions, databases, and more. These are pricey endeavors; going through state libraries allows for better provider pricing.
When the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) swept the IMLS, it became clear that not all statutory functions would remain intact. At least three states did not receive their Grants to States money–California, Connecticut, and Washington, all due to their use of the word “equity” in their applications. Dozens of additional grant recipients also saw their already-approved funding go unmet. While the states that didn’t initially get their Grants to States funding did receive it eventually, not all organizations or individuals honored with other grants were so lucky. This inconsistency created chaos and led to services like Interlibrary Loan delivery in South Dakota being halted for a time. Two federal lawsuits followed, both focused on how the actions taken by the administration to decimate the IMLS were illegal.
IMLS is a top-down agency. They receive their allocation from the federal budget, then distribute it to the state and local level. But with this latest announcement–which cannot be found anywhere on the IMLS website but was sent out via their newsletter (suggesting, perhaps, there are measures in place that make updating some of the agency’s communications more difficult)–we see IMLS serving from the bottom up. It’s also clear that IMLS is no longer there simply for statutory purposes. That is, unless stroking the ego of the administration now falls under necessary agency functions.
Right now, it just might.
To understand why the Freedom Trucks project is not only spreading a whitewashed history of America but also indicative of the role the America250 project will have in rewriting this country’s story, let’s break this press release down. It is a tremendous work of propaganda and mis/disinformation.
From the top:
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has awarded America250, the bipartisan organization charged by Congress to lead the commemoration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a grant to launch six mobile exhibits known as “Freedom Trucks” to travel across the country throughout 2026, sharing the story of our nation’s founding. The project directly supports the January 29, 2025, Presidential Executive Order, “Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday.”
The IMLS took money from its own budget and presented it to America250. Recall that this agency’s budget was slashed by the newly-installed leadership in March, leaving several states and hundreds of individuals and organizations without their promised grant funding. But more curiously, IMLS doesn’t give money to the governmental bodies above them. They distribute it down. The release states that the federal government took money intended for public institutions nationwide and moved it up the chain for use by a “bipartisan organization charged by Congress” instead. This isn’t within the bounds of IMLS’s statutory function, nor was it money allocated for such a purpose.
So what is America250 anyway? In the press release, America250 is described as a bipartisan organization charged by Congress. This was true before the new administration. Per excellent reporting from Mother Jones in June 2025, this bipartisan organization is–or at least was before March 2025–comprised of two arms. There’s the Commission, at one time made up of 32 lawmakers and federal officials, founded in 2016. Then there’s the America250 Foundation (A250), created as a nonprofit in 2019 and later renamed America250 Inc. The two organizations have worked closely together for several years. The Commission and A250 use the same website and office building, and you can see where and how the Commission provided funds to the Foundation via their 2025 tax filing. Where the Commission receives money from federal appropriations, that money is frequently passed on to the Foundation. As of this writing, access to the annual reports provided by the collaborating teams to Congress has been severed from the America250 website. However, the January 2025 report is available via the Wayback Machine here.
The first paragraph of the IMLS press release suggests that IMLS provided some of its budget to the collaborating Commission and the A250 Foundation.
Except per the final line in that first paragraph, this project “directly supports” the Executive Order “Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday” from January 29, 2025. That Executive Order established a separate entity called Task Force 250, charged with “celebrating America’s 250th birthday.”
As Mother Jones reported, Task Force 250 has no obligation to be bipartisan the way that the Commission must be. Trump can call all the shots because he gave himself the power to do so in the Order.
 Quote from Project 2025 |
Task Force 250 is located within the Department of Defense, not Congress. This is strategic, as we’ve seen how easy it is for orders to come down from the top of the Department of Defense to its member institutions. The Department of Defense, for example, was able to quickly demand that books be banned from military schools worldwide because few other hoops stand in the way of them doing so (this demand was met with a lawsuit filed by the ACLU).
Task Force 250 is filled to the brim with right-wing operatives, and its website has been populated with videos presenting a version of American history that doesn’t align with the truth. Indeed, Task Force 250 “teamed up” with Hillsdale College to create these materials–Hillsdale College is one of the most conservative schools in America and sat on the advisory committee for Project 2025, which emphasizes the need for conservatives to “fight for the soul of America” as the country nears its 250th birthday.
The Task Force 250 team launched their initiatives in full force on Memorial Day this year, planning to see the work end on December 31, 2026. Task Force 250 also has an entire page and plan dedicated to American prayer.
 Screenshot from the White House’s Task Force 250 website |
Task Force 250, as mentioned in our earlier coverage of the attacks on the IMLS, includes the Acting Director of that agency. Among the duties listed in the Executive Order for the IMLS via Sonderling are “to plan, organize, and execute an extraordinary celebration of the 250th Anniversary of American Independence” and “to provide a grand celebration worthy of the momentous occasion of the 250th anniversary of American Independence on July 4, 2026. It is also the purpose of this order to take other actions to honor the history of our great Nation.”
Since Trump’s inauguration and his creation of Task Force 250, the work being done by the Congressional Commission and A250 has changed dramatically. Several private organizations, including those with direct ties to Trump, are now funding it. Among them, per Mother Jones, are “Coinbase, Palantir, UFC, and Phorm Energy, an energy drink company partly owned by UFC CEO and Trump ally Dana White.” Palantir stands out among these names, as Peter Thiel founded it. Thiel formerly employed Vice President J.D. Vance and provided steep funding to his campaign; he’s also played a role in the work done by DOGE.
This corporate support of a “bipartisan organization charged by Congress” begs plenty of questions, including why a “bipartisan” Congressional group would need to have its work sponsored by mega corporations, the bulk of which are tech companies with outspoken right-wing politics.
 Screenshot of some of the America250 corporate sponsorships from this week. |
Here’s the list of three corporate sponsors from March 14. The Sponsors page on the America250 website did not exist before that date.
The funds IMLS is distributing to the “bipartisan organization charged by Congress” and its partner A250 Foundation don’t actually appear to be going there. Instead, that money is actually being passed to the Task Force. This is evidenced by the last sentence, stating the project is being developed in light of the demands of Task Force 250. The money might be directed to the Commission, but that Commission looks to be handing it right over to the Task Force. That probably has something to do with the withering state of the bipartisan Commission–but more on that shortly.
It took only two sentences for the IMLS press release to become a tangled mess of mis- and disinformation–two things information professionals within that agency fight against. The careful use of descriptions for what the money will be used for is important here. We don’t know what the “bipartisan organization charged by Congress” is because it’s not defined. Even if it is either the America250 Commission or the A250 Foundation, that money is being used directly to fund Trump’s unregulated, deeply partisan Task Force 250.
Paragraph two of the IMLS press release is pretty straightforward:
The mobile exhibits will highlight the key people, places, and events that gave birth to American independence, and will stop at local libraries, schools, and community gatherings. At a time when 64 percent of Americans cannot pass the citizenship test, these key exhibits aim to make our nation’s history more accessible and reinforce patriotism among Americans of all ages.
Given that federal institutions dedicated to preserving and sharing America’s history must go through Trump before they’re presented to the public (see the Smithsonian) we can guess what kinds of libraries, schools and community gatherings will see such exhibits. They’re partisan takes on actual events, and they’re messages that will be pre-approved by the folks behind Project 2025.
Another red flag in this paragraph is the unsubstantiated and unsourced data presented. There is no link to support the claim that 64% of Americans cannot pass the citizenship test. Is this all Americans? Are these immigrants taking the citizenship test in hopes of gaining their right to be here? Are these adults? Children? It’s a perfect example of lying with statistics.
It’s an egregious oversight for an agency purported to serve as an information authority.
“As we approach America’s 250th birthday, it’s never been more important to teach the next generation of our nation’s proud history and founding principles,” said IMLS Acting Director Keith Sonderling. “Our new Freedom Trucks aim to reignite patriotism, celebrate our shared heritage, enhace local community celebrations, and ensure every American has the chance to learn about the ideals that made our country the greatest in the world. IMLS is proud to have sponsored this traveling exhibit and invite participants to learn more about our rich history at their local libraries and museums.”
No, that’s not a copy-and-paste error. Sonderling’s quote in the third paragraph of the press release misspells “enhance.” But more importantly, it’s here that it becomes clear what these Freedom Trucks are about: spreading whitewashed history across the country.
In a Facebook post by the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums, an affinity professional association, wonders if these Freedom Trucks will include history that explores the richness of Native lives before, during, and after settler colonization. Beyond what feels like an obvious “no” answer, given this administration’s priorities, erasing representation has been one of the goals in Task Force 250.
Per Mother Jones, “The liaison in charge of coordinating with federally recognized tribes was let go [from A250]. Advisory councils, each dedicated to making the anniversary events resonate with different groups of Americans, have been quietly removed from the website.”
The Director of Tribal Partnerships for A250 was no longer in the role as of March 2025. Over the course of just a single month, March 2025, numerous other members of the bipartisan A250 Commission disappeared from the website. Among them were Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden; Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute Lonnie Bunch III; Cyndee Landrum, IMLS Acting Director before Sonderling’s takeover; Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson; and Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Shelley C. Lowe.
It’s by design that most of the Commissioners removed are people of color.
It’s by design that many of them were or remain directly involved in curating and sharing the realities of America’s history.
It’s by design that the original bipartisan Congressional Commission and its A250 Foundation have been collapsed into the Task Force itself. There is no one stopping Trump from doing it. He bestowed himself with the power. Like many other Executive Orders and firings across federal departments and agencies, no one has stopped him. In some cases, he’s also been handed victories via the judicial system.
Paragraph four of the IMLS press release gives us another example of where and how mis- and disinformation are being rendered into nonsense soup:
Inspired by the VA250 Mobile Museum Experience, the Freedom Trucks will bring history to life with inspiring, factual content, including digital and interactive material. Based on concept of the Freedom Train, one of the most memorable and educational aspects of the bicentennial, they are poised to become the largest traveling exhibit on America’s founding.
Comparing the Freedom Trucks to the Freedom Train is pretty apt, and the hope is that no one reading the press release will know what this means. That the release conflates two different “Freedom Trains” only aids in the confusion.
The first Freedom Train in America ran from 1946 to 1947. The goal was to encourage patriotism at the end of World War II, which the government had been trying to do through blatant propaganda in the war’s later years.
The Freedom Train was not an honest or holistic view of American history brought to people nationwide. The committee overseeing the Freedom Train didn’t invite Black people until after it launched, and their representation in this display of American history was incredibly limited.
Though the National Archives provided the materials for the traveling exhibit, American archivist and future Assistant Librarian of Congress Elizabeth Hamer noted that it was clear from the start that this was a project of Hollywood capital. It wasn’t truthful. It wasn’t intended to educate. It was bread and circuses, propaganda, and designed to influence citizens into becoming loyal to the federal government and its priorities. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
IMLS’s messaging makes no distinction between the Freedom Train of the 40s and the American Freedom Train, which ran from 1975 to 1976. It intentionally obfuscates the two. While the American Freedom Train was also imperfect, it better represented the diversity of American lives, voices, and history. The American Freedom Train was assembled in honor of the bicentennial, as referenced in the press release. Whether purposeful or indicative of how little understanding there is of actual historic events, it’s clear that no actual professional with the IMLS was involved in this.
The Trump administration’s removal sof ome of America’s chief preservationists and historical curators before the announcement of Freedom Trucks, including Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden and archivist Colleen Joy Shogan–two women–only further underlines whose history will be front and center.
Onto paragraph five:
“The Freedom Trucks will bring the story of America’s founding directly to communities nationwide — reminding us that our nation was built by the courage, sacrifice, and vision of everyday patriots,” said Jennifer Condon, Executive Vice President at America250. “This initiative embodies America250’s mission to unite our nation, spark civic renewal, and encourage reflection on the values that continue to guide us today.”
“Everyday patriots” is code for a very narrow group of Americans. “Unite our nation” is code for specific values and behaviors. “Spark civic renewal” is code for submitting to the administration’s directives and unfettered capitalism. “Encourage reflection on the values that continue to guide us today” begs the question of what those values are, especially in a nation where people are being rounded up and shipped out without due process as required by this country’s very Constitution.
Not to mention, these phrases and priorities are peppered throughout Project 2025.
But who is Jennifer Condon? In November 2023, she was named interim executive director of the Commission overseeing the semiquincentennial, a role that has seen significant turnover. But as of May 2025, she’s no longer in that role as the position and the Commission itself continues to be roiled in partisan controversy (it’s now helmed by Ari Abergel, a 25-year-old Fox News producer, who Trump tapped for the role). During Condon’s time as interim executive director of the Commission, she also served as vice president of the A250 Commission, where she still is today. As the Commission and its A250 Foundation collapse into one, so, too, they appear to be collapsing into the Trump-run Task Force.
Condon’s history is one associated with a significant lawsuit related to her role with a startup company called Trustify, Inc. The Securities and Exchange Commission sued the company for defrauding over 250 individuals and corporate investors.
Condon, whose name at the time was Jennifer Mellon, was named a relief defendant in the case. While she wasn’t personally accused of wrongdoing–and to this day is innocent and shall be presumed innocent unless otherwise documented–she may have received some benefit from the accused. Mellon was married to the CEO of Trustify, who was sentenced to eight years in jail, while she was party to paying $72,000 as part of the SEC’s civil complaint. She neither confirmed nor denied guilt in the matter.
She is a curious pick for a quotation in the IMLS press release.
Last but not least, the press release ends with what commands the most critical attention right now:
Libraries, museums, and other organizations will be invited to participate in the mobile exhibit tour, and audiences nationwide will be able to engage with the content virtually throughout 2026.
The language here is key. Libraries and museums are not being offered an opportunity to create their own exhibits or programs around the Freedom Truck initiative. Money that should have gone to these institutions to do such programming was funneled out of the agency representing them and over to Trump’s handpicked team. Money that belongs to the institutions dedicated to truth and information was moved to a Task Force comprised of individuals who were given their roles thanks to the dismantling and destruction of legacy agencies. Libraries and museums–likely handpicked ones with severe restrictions placed upon them–will be “invited” to host these Freedom Trucks.
The word “all” is missing here because these six Freedom Trucks aren’t going to visit every place in America. They can’t. Instead, they will likely not get very far at all, especially if the IMLS is shuttered, as Trump’s proposed budget states.
Will audiences be able to view the exhibits in 2026? Sure. But it’s pretty likely the experience will be much like the “history lessons” being presented on the Task Force 250 website right now: full of cherry-picked stories and told through a lens uplifting a false narrative of who and what we are as a nation past, present, and future, and sponsored by organizations hoping not to be reprimanded nor regulated by the authoritarians in charge.
There are two takes on this press release. The first is the critical and more generous one, as outlined above.
The second is less generous and more cynical: Is this project being announced now that it looks like Trump’s plans to defund the IMLS altogether are less likely, thanks to tireless advocacy by people and organizations nationwide? If public library and museum supporters see that the IMLS’s budget will be spent on partisan propaganda, perhaps the thinking is that supporters will change their tune and stop stepping up. We’re smarter than that, especially as so much damage has already been done. We’re smarter than that because it’s clear that this administration isn’t doing anything new or innovative. They’re repeating the same patterns they’ve used since the start, but placing them in new contexts.
While legitimate programs have been created through America250–and there are likely still some to come–right now, it’s crucial to be critical of new America250 initiatives rolling out of this administration. This is especially true when those programs are being built on the backs of federal departments and agencies that the administration has spent the last year gutting and taking over. The IMLS is a prime target because it is relatively unknown to those outside the library or museum world. It’s a prime target because associating a nationwide historical event with an agency whose job is history and information makes for good optics. We have the tools to be critical consumers of information coming from the federal government, and we must use them.
Anyone who has been paying attention–or willing to spend a little time educating themselves on what’s been happening with democracy since January–will easily see there is far more to the story being presented to us. You don’t fire the national archivist or the Librarian of Congress without having a specific reason, just as you don’t attempt to shutter an agency whose budget makes up less than .005% of federal spending.
You do that because these are key pillars in upholding the truth about America’s story, rather than pandering to an imagined fiction of it.
Book Censorship News, September 12, 2025
The Vice Mayor of Cookeville, Tennessee, is demanding the removal of 17 books in the Putnam County Library. He says they’re explicit. Among the titles are the picture book Pride Puppy and Queerfully and Wonderfully Made: A Guide for LGBTQ Christian Teens. Okay then, wanna be authoritarian. (More on this story from later in the week). In the ongoing saga of book bans in Alberta, Canada, now the Premier is focusing on “graphics” in books rather than the text for the next target. Recall the broad ban law was overturned last week after pressure from, well, about everyone. Now, it’s just comics with “sexual acts.” Okay sure. Michigan anti-censorship advocates talk about their work and why it’s crucial to keep fighting against book bans and for libraries in the state. “As Montana communities struggle to find ways to keep pace with rising costs and increasing demands on public service, several communities have discovered a new revenue source – libraries and museums.” Whew, this is a good and necessary story about how city/county budgeters are stealing money from libraries and museums to fund other things like more cops. A big win for the freedom to read in Huntington Beach, California, where the city cannot enforce their censorship plans at the library. This is what it means to enforce a state’s anti-book ban law. Lori the Librarian is the new “superhero” of the book banning cult. But who is she and what does she do? Maricopa County Libraries (AZ) quietly relocated children’s sex ed books into the adult non-fiction section after the genital-obsessed party complained. This is in violation of every library ethical standard and practice. “A professor whose paper on homosexuality in naval adventure literature was accepted to a Naval Academy history symposium learned in June that his invitation had been rescinded — for reasons, he says, that have nothing to do with scholarship. He believes he was censored in line with an anti-LGBTQ+ stance of the Defense Department under President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.” That tracks with this administration. Alabama Public Library Services, which supplies a chunk of funding for Alabama public libraries, is one step closer to banning libraries from having any “material that promotes, encourages, or positively depicts transgender procedures, gender ideology, or the concept of more than two biological genders shall be considered inappropriate for children and youth.” It’s a big anti-LGBT+ book ban for anyone under 18. Garrett-Keyser-Butler school board (IN) voted to ban six books from their schools. The books are A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, Forrest Gump, A Thousand Splendid Suns, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, The Handmaid’s Tale, and A Brave New World. Enjoy this comment on a local Facebook group about the issue–it’s so out of touch with reality and history. Rockingham County School Board (VA) has officially banned four more books from the district. They are Go Ask Alice, The Bluest Eye, Out of the Darkness, and Rage. That puts the average publication date before most of the so-called “parents” crying “parental rights” were born, just for context. Literary advocates in Harford County, Maryland, schools held a read-in to protest the banning of Flamer. Recall Maryland has an anti-book ban law. Those only matter if they’re enforced. Hillsborough County Public Schools (FL) just voted to ban two more books, Blankets and Identical. “The Fremont County Library Board [WY] voted 4-1 last week to remove all references to the American Library Association from Fremont County Library System bylaws, policies, handbooks, strategic plans, promotions, posters, and other documents. Library Board Member Marta Mossburg made the motion during a regular meeting Thursday, explaining that she drafted the proposal because the ALA’s “mission, priorities, and values contradict the U.S. Constitution, Wyoming State Statutes, and Fremont County community standards.” Another public library system pretending that the American Library Association isn’t a professional organization and instead, playing political games. This is absurd. Remember when a federal judge said the book bans happening in Florida weren’t legal and none of the books being pulled were obscene? The state has officially filed their appeal and request for stay. Shira Perlmutter, the Copyright Register who was fired from her role at the Library of Congress, has been granted her role back from a court. We’ll see how long it lasts. A professor at Texas A&M University was fired for teaching a gender-identity lesson in a young adult literature class. These are courses for full-grown adults in the state. This is authoritarian overreach and the dream of the right: taking down anything they don’t like, no matter who voluntarily chooses to engage with it. The chair of the English department and a dean at the school were also fired. Some great service journalism here: a look at the Colorado school board races folks should keep their eyes on. The races were decided by input from the paper’s readers and aimed at staving off the far-right board candidates. Two high schoolers wrote a love letter about their high school librarian and the banned books club they’re part of. This is really moving and thoughtful and a reminder that kids know exactly what the hell is going on right now. Three Florida counties have ended their interlibrary loan program because they do not have the funds needed to keep it going. Those funds come from the IMLS.Don’t miss this week’s earlier stories on the forthcoming national and international release of The Librarians documentary and how one library in Oregon has faced over two years of attempts to defund and shutter their institution.
Bengali (Bangladesh) · 
English (United States) ·