Orwell Died 3 Quarters Of A Century Ago... Otherwise I'd Try to Get Him For A MiniTru Guest Post

Growing up in New York in the 1950s and ’60s, George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984 was mandatory reading. (Animal Farm) may have been as well. A democratic socialist, Orwell, who died in 1950 (age 46), was vehemently opposed to authoritarianism, both the fascist and the communist brands. Were he alive today, he would be one of our most eloquent critics of the MAGA movement. In fact, where MAGAts have taken over school boards, Orwell’s books are often either banned or ignored, objected to by right-wingers for their perceived anti-government/anti-authoritarian stance, which they interpret as critiquing traditional institutions, promoting rebellion, advocating critical thinking and, of course, being anti-Trump, who was 4 when Orwell died. 1984 is seen as a powerful critique against totalitarianism, government repression and mass surveillance, highlighting the importance of truth and facts.

Speaking of which, yesterday, Will Weissert wrote that “For generations, official American documents have been meticulously preserved and protected, from the era of quills and parchment to boxes of paper to the cloud, safeguarding snapshots of the government and the nation for posterity. Now, the Trump administration is scrubbing thousands of government websites of history, legal records and data it finds disagreeable,” ala 1984’s Ministry of Truth.

The Trumpist regime, for example, “has sought to expand the executive branch’s power to shield from public view the government-slashing efforts of Elon’s Musk’s team and other key administration initiatives… And they have shaken up the National Archives leadership and even ordered the rewriting of history on display at the Smithsonian institution.”

Let’s imagine Orwell were still among the living and I somehow persuaded him to do a guest post for DWT. Perhaps he would have read Weissert’s AP story and responded with…

The Trumpist Regime: A Dystopian Reflection On Historical Erasure & Authoritarianism

In the annals of history, the preservation of truth stands as a bulwark against the tides of authoritarianism. The United States, once a flawed but functioning liberal democracy, now teeters on the edge of something darker: a soft dictatorship with tech billionaires and evangelical oligarchs pulling the strings behind a figurehead too deranged to read a briefing memo but savvy enough to understand one thing— if you erase the record, you erase the crime.

In my time, I imagined a world where history could be rewritten on command. Where yesterday’s truth became today’s treason. I set it in the future. But you’re living it now. This is not a drill. It is not politics as usual. It is not even a pendulum swing. It is an emersion into tyranny— American-style, reality-show-flavored, armed with lawyers, billionaires, and algorithms. And unless the people tear off the blindfolds, reclaim the archives, and speak the truth— loudly, relentlessly, and without apology— the future will belong not to freedom, but to the Ministry of Lies.

There can be no doubt whatsoever that the recent actions of the Trump administration evoke a chilling parallel to the dystopian realities I once envisioned. The systematic scrubbing of government websites, the deletion of legal records, and the use of auto-deleting messaging apps like Signal represent a deliberate effort to control and manipulate the historical narrative. This mirrors the concept of “memory holes” I described in 1984, where inconvenient truths are obliterated to maintain the Party's infallibility.

The expansion of executive power to shield initiatives from public scrutiny, coupled with the dismissal of key archival figures like Colleen Shogan and Carla Hayden, underscores a regime intent on consolidating authority and suppressing dissent.  Such actions erode the checks and balances essential to a functioning democracy.

The executive order targeting the Smithsonian to remove "improper, divisive or anti-American ideology" is a stark example of state-imposed historical revisionism.  By dictating the portrayal of history, the administration seeks to fabricate a sanitized narrative, reminiscent of the “Ministry of Truth” where history is rewritten to suit the ruling party's agenda.

The mishandling of classified documents, including their storage in unsecured locations at Mar-a-Lago, and the subsequent obstruction of justice, highlight a blatant disregard for transparency and accountability. Such actions not only compromise national security but also reflect a broader pattern of evading oversight.

I once wrote that “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” I meant it as a warning. The Trumpist regime has taken it as a blueprint. And now they’ve turned the machinery of the state into a digital bonfire. Let’s keep track of the fact that the enormity of government websites being scrubbed of records, legal precedents vanishing into the ether and inconvenient data being quietly disappeared aren’t by accident, but by design. This isn’t “deregulation.” It’s erasure. It’s authoritarianism in khakis and MAGA hats and it reeks of the same contempt for history, law and public accountability that has defined every tinpot dictator of the past century.

What we are witnessing isn’t the normal ebb and flow of bureaucratic transition. It’s the deliberate unmooring of truth from the institutions tasked with preserving it. And it’s being done with a sneer; with pride; with full knowledge that the American press corps, still stumbling around with bothsides blinders strapped to their faces, will treat it as “partisan wrangling” instead of what it is: the construction of a post-fact state.

Trumpism is not merely incompetent and corrupt— though it is decidedly both of those— it is a full-blown political cult fueled by grievance, saturated with paranoia and allergic to any form of accountability. Trump has elevated liars, frauds and would-be strongmen while systematically dismantling the very systems— archives, watchdog agencies, transparent documentation— that make democratic governance possible. When Elon Musk’s wrecking crew slashes public services under the pretense of “efficiency” while hiding its blueprints from scrutiny, and the White House installs a revolving door of cronies and conspiracists committed to evading FOIA laws, you are not watching policy— you are watching a regime prepare for impunity.