What exact quotes did Trump make about the American Revolution and founding fathers?
Executive summary
A compilation of President Donald J. Trump’s public remarks shows recurring, explicit language tying contemporary cultural fights to the American Revolution and lauding the Founders; the record in the White House archives contains several verbatim lines such as “the left‑wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution” and “That same American spirit that emboldened our founders has kept us strong throughout our history” [1] [2]. The archival sources used here are Trump administration remarks and proclamations and therefore capture what he said in official venues but do not constitute an exhaustive catalog of every utterance on the topic [1] [2] [3].
1. Direct charge that modern critics seek to “overthrow the American Revolution”
In a White House Conference on American History speech archived by the Trump administration, Trump explicitly framed protest and cultural change as an assault on the founding itself, saying “the left‑wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution,” and repeating that “the radicals burning American flags want to burn down the principles enshrined in our founding documents, including the bedrock principle of equal justice under law” [1]. Those exact phrasings are presented as direct quotes in the administration’s published remarks and were used to justify preserving statues and adding figures to the National Garden of American Heroes [1].
2. Praising a continuous “American spirit” that “emboldened our founders”
At the 2019 Salute to America, the president stated in identical, repeated phrasing: “That same American spirit that emboldened our founders has kept us strong throughout our history. To this day, that spirit runs through