When the Trump-Vance authoritarian regime took over the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) in March 2025, it was clear that they would use the agency as an arm of government propaganda. Keith Sonderling was installed as Acting Director, and he promised to “[steer] this organization in lockstep with this Administration to enhance efficiency and foster innovation. We will revitalize IMLS and restore focus on patriotism, ensuring we preserve our country’s core values, promote American exceptionalism, and cultivate love of country in future generations.”

Once the regime had the IMLS keys, they dropped their first message on social media. Here’s the carousel from Instagram, published April 3, 2025:

This post is no longer on their Instagram page. It was removed at some point, as though it had never existed. Perhaps this was evidence that could be used against the regime in their IMLS lawsuits; maybe someone who really knows how the IMLS operates deleted it. Given that the staff in the tiny agency is less than half the size it was before March’s gutting day, chances for that are likely slim.

Shortly thereafter, the administration became a defendant in two lawsuits over the agency’s dismantling. The first, Rhode Island v. Trump, was filed by 21 state attorneys general; the judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs last summer and barred the administration from further dismantling the institution. Trump’s team appealed the decision just last month. The second case, American Library Association v. Sonderling, is still progressing through the system; the ruling there will invariably hinge on the prior case’s outcome.

Though it was clear in the months following that first social media post that the administration’s takeover of the IMLS was having a real effect on the agency and on libraries and museums nationwide–interlibrary loan deliveries in several states were slowed, if not stopped all together; resources provided to rural and small libraries were interrupted; grants offered to library projects were halted–the propaganda wasn’t blatant nor coming at rapid speed. At least it wasn’t until a September 8 press release from the IMLS went out to newsletter subscribers.

Freedom Trucks were the first project announced by the new IMLS leadership. Over $14,000,000 of our tax money was stolen from public libraries and museum grants–and specifically, grants intended to help facilitate education and growth for leaders in the field–and funneled into America250. IMLS operates as a top-down agency. That is, they get a budget allocation and pass that money down to state- and local-level institutions and initiatives. But for Freedom Trucks, the money flowed upward. Money allocated for on-the-ground efforts was pushed upward back to the government itself.

What Freedom Trucks are is covered extensively in a piece I wrote for Book Riot. The long and short of it is that they’re six mobile exhibits that will crisscross the country and showcase “the story of our nation’s founding.” Who created these exhibits, what materials they contain, and what the narratives actually contain are never addressed. We know Hillsdale College was involved, but the extent beyond the financial was unclear. The only words about the project’s curation and vision come from Sonderling, as well as the Executive Vice President of America250. It certainly wasn’t created or developed by IMLS staff.

That press release was but a preview of the propaganda to come. What began quietly is now loud, in your face, and really, really bad. That’s what happens when people who have no idea what they’re doing try to do something because they can use the AI of the technocrats.

But before getting to that, something to note: per the Vacancies Act, an Acting Director of a federal agency serves for 210 days following their appointment. The President is to use that time to send a nomination for the Director role for Senate confirmation. That means that Sonderling, appointed on March 20, 2025, is technically no longer Acting Director at the IMLS. We know technicalities and rules don’t apply to this administration, and it’s been confirmed that Sonderling is still acting as Acting Director, despite his term being over.

One of the direct results of the ruling in Rhode Island v. Trump was that the IMLS needed to restore its grant programs (including those beyond the “grants to states” program, which provides each state library with funds for state-level disbursement).* The agency did just that, beginning in mid-January.

Those grants, unsurprisingly, are further extensions of propaganda.

Here’s the Notice of Funding Opportunities for the Laura Bush 21st Century Library Program. You’ll see that it references several Trump executive orders, leans into the religious freedom aspect of the First Amendment while ignoring the other four interconnected freedoms, and especially solicits projects that would directly harm the future of professional librarianship. Among some of the quotes:

• “We are excited not only to support general improvements across the library field, but also to promote libraries as they teach Americans about their heritage and history, especially one of the greatest chapters in the human story– America’s founding.”

• “We welcome projects that refocus cultural institutions on what unites us by fostering respectful civil dialogue. In doing so, we acknowledge our core Constitutional Rights, including Free Exercise of Religion. Applicants may find it helpful to review and consider EO 14188, “Additional Measures to Combat AntiSemitism,” and EO 14202, “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias,” as they work on projects to strengthen American civil society.”

• “Meaningfully engage and educate communities about our nation’s great history and the incredible story of America’s founding, in fitting commemoration of the 250th anniversary of American Independence.”

The call for grant proposals was paired with a social media post that further emphasized the types of projects most likely to be approved by the administration. Weirdly, Sonderling tags himself in the post:

All the administration’s favorite white supremacist dog whistles are included. “Heritage” appears twice in a three-sentence post.

Just days later, social media propaganda continues. Now, we’re back to talking about Freedom Trucks, including an image of what these mobile exhibits will look like on the outside. Sonderling literally centers himself in the image, and it appears as though the flag is a weird AI generation.

You’ll notice Sonderling again tags himself in the post, alongside Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and the Freedom 250 committee. Once you click over to the Freedom 250 committee–what appears to be the new name of the former America250 committee–you get an inside look at the Freedom Trucks, as well as some more insight as to their development.

The content and development of the Freedom Trucks came from Hillsdale College, one of the most far-right, conservative institutions in the country. The video being promoted on the “non-partisan” Freedom 250 Instagram Account? It’s from PragerU, a far-right “educational” group that’s had its whitewashed history shoved into several state education curricula.**

PragerU created all the multimedia content for the Freedom Trucks. PragerU also takes full ownership of the creation of the Freedom Trucks on its website. In other words, our tax money was funneled away from public libraries and public museums and into the private pockets of Dennis Prager.

Among the “exhibits” are an AI-generated interactive George Washington image, alongside a “sign the Declaration of Independence yourself” exhibit. It is as whitewashed and fantastical as you’d imagine.

The social media video was taken at the kickoff for the first Truck in Greensboro, North Carolina. The exhibit was launched to the public on January 21.

The propaganda continues and continues and continues and continues. Even the IMLS website has been rebranded as America 250’s project:

IMLS apparently tells “THE” American story. Once you click on that new menu bar item, you are directed to a page that includes this introduction, as well as promotion of the Freedom Trucks that were only paid for by money stolen from the IMLS and not the IMLS itself.

Again with the language of the far right of “heritage” and “shared” identity.

Perhaps in this recent propaganda spree, though, this is the weirdest take: the agency posted an AI-generated image of one of the freedom trucks pushing through snow while a penguin runs toward it, waving an American flag. Penguins are not even native to America, let alone most of the northern hemisphere at all. For all the love of America first and the violence enacted upon immigrants in this country, you’d think they’d at least pick something a little more symbolic of this actual country.

The propaganda is going to get a lot worse and more pervasive before it gets better. Only one month into 2026, and we’ve not only been flooded with the reality that our tax money was given to a private business actively destroying our public education systems, but we’re also being made well aware that none of the grant money allocated for libraries and museums will go to actual libraries and museums. That researchers and impassioned advocates of public institutions of democracy will be spat upon, while AI will be fed and fueled instead. Professional pursuits, standards, and intelligence–even the basic ability to ask questions like “what is the symbolism of the penguin in this image and what message are you really trying to convey here alongside the actual behavior you practice?”–will continue to be eschewed in favor of typing some things into the plagiarism box and leaving the mess for someone else to have to clean up later. If there’s someone else later to do it, that is.

Just this week, the administration circled in on another one of their pet partisan projects via the IMLS: a press release highlighting four projects that received funding last year and that leaned into the President’s Executive Orders around “combating anti-semitism.” This isn’t about the museums, though. It’s about how Sonderling made the decisions on which projects to fund because of how they aligned with Executive Orders.

In making these grants, Sonderling said:

We can never forget the horrors of the Holocaust. Antisemitism is not a distant threat--it continues to be a present and urgent challenge. Museums and libraries are uniquely positioned to fight antisemitism in numerous ways but especially by educating the public about the gravity of the Holocaust. 

According to the FBI, Jews make up just 2.4 percent of the U.S. population, yet they are the victims of 63 percent of religiously motivated hate crimes. Cultural institutions have a responsibility to confront this hatred head-on through education, dialogue, and preservation of truth.

Antisemitism is real, and it is alive in America today.+ But the motivations behind it being a Trump-Vance priority aren’t sincere. It’s part of Project Esther, the brainchild of the same Heritage Foundation that masterminded Project 2025. That’s why it’s totally fine that we have Nazis patrolling American city streets and why the regime has no problem sympathizing with people who call themselves that. This press release seeks to advance that cause through a marginalized group, rather than actually helping and advocating for that group. It was timed for Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27–a date and memorialization event that the administration wiped entirely off their calendars last year for reasons of erasing and removing diversity, equity, and inclusion from their initiatives.

It’s a kick in the teeth to Jewish people who really do need tangible support against targeted hate, and it’s a kick in the teeth to the museums whose projects are now being directly tied with Trump initiatives and not the actual federal agency and its civilian workers that support public libraries and museums.

I won’t be holding my breath for similar press releases in honor of Black History Month, Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Pride Month, or any other cultural celebration.

The complete timeline of the IMLS’s destruction, including its continued precarious position of not yet being funded for this fiscal year, is available here. As always, none of this is the fault of the overworked, beleaguered staff of the IMLS. They’ve been suffering even more than we could likely imagine, as they’ve been witnesses to the ways that this administration has simultaneously destroyed and taken advantage of everything they’ve built for America’s libraries and museums over generations.

Notes:

*The necessity of the state library to disburse federal funds to state-provided programs and to local-level libraries is why several states tried to dismantle their state libraries last year. In 2026, there aren’t (yet) any state-level bills trying to shutter their respective state libraries.

**In other words, state taxpayers foot the bill for this private company’s “lessons,” including many developed with AI and without any actual educators or use of the actual historical record.

+As far as I can tell, the administration didn’t put out a statement on the arson at Jackson, Mississippi’s Beth Israel Congregation. There’s zero mention of Trump or his regime even in the Fox News coverage of the story.