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Highest ever, lowest ever, best ever, worst ever, and a series of historic firsts: Trump celebrates the new year with a ball drop of history-centered hyperbole
A series of generally unscripted appearances by the president has provided the Political Uses of the Past Project with a bevy of unusual history-centered claims. […]
Today’s summary: We will be hearing more about Clinton’s welfare reform, and soon
As the Political Uses of the Past project continues to divide time between improving the back end and updating the front, these posts have fallen […]
Trump administration seems doomed to repeat its historical talking points
This blog has been on an extended hiatus for maintenance and under-the-hood improvements, but as far as the current administration is concerned it didn’t miss […]
Daily Summary: Uses of the past from Trump’s UN speech, why do we vote on Tuesday, and more
While President Trump’s promise to destroy North Korea has grabbed most of the headlines, he also made pointed uses of the past during his speech […]
Daily summary: Immigration and the 1980s, the US and Asia after World War II, and Reagan’s medium-range missile treaty
Today’s summary of political uses of the past includes a series of statements about immigration that use the 1980s as a point of reference. A […]
Mick Mulvaney: Reagan challenged “malaise” and “steered us to a boom”
For merely suggesting that we can get back to that level [3 percent annual growth], the administration has been criticized as unrealistic. That’s fine with […]
Rep. Liz Cheney: “Lessons of the past” support increased defense spending
Mr. Speaker, in closing, I want to read something that Ronald Reagan said back in 1982 on an issue when they were having similar issues […]
Sen. Marco Rubio: “Democracies very rarely start wars”
We look at the history of our hemisphere, here in the Western Hemisphere, and we see that up until about 25 years ago, most of […]
White House: “Clear parallel” between US-France WWI alliance and “what we’re doing today”
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, let’s keep in mind what the, sort of, centerpiece of the trip is, which is the French National Day and its […]
Marc Short: “The Senate is conducting the slowest confirmation process in American history”
This is a common White House refrain that has been extensively discussed and fact-checked. See here, here, and here, and see also an earlier claim […]