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What Does Trump’s Election Mean for the Future of Book Bans?

The re-election of Donald Trump signals a new, dark era for America, and the future of its democracy. The most powerful country in the world is now set to be led by a convicted criminal, who is seeking to establish a cult of personality,1 having campaigned on a slew of propagandic disinformation,2 and who has publically bragged that “four more years” of his presidency and “you won’t have to vote any more.”3 This is a case study in the potential rise of an authoritarian leader. Hence, many have raised concerns on what another Trump term will mean for censorship in the United States of America—after all, this is the man who has made upwards of 100 threats to prosecute perceived political opponents since 2022,4 and who has been widely associated with the ultra-right Project 2025.

I do not raise these or the following observations in order to fear-monger, I wish they were hyperbolic; as the author of a work5 documenting the book bans/burnings of Hitler and Stalin alongside the already-rising trend of censorship in the USA propagated primarily by the right-wing, I simply recognise the imminent dangers that a second Trump term carries, including on the matter of censorship and book bans.  

“You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?” We should be concerned when this question has to be posed to any presidential candidate. We should be even more concerned when the answer received is “No, no, no, other than day one.”6 Despite Trump’s aides insisting that he was simply aiming to ‘trigger the left’ with this remark, it fits into a wider pattern of authoritarian rhetoric, and, moreover, can be evidenced through his policies.

A key point on Trump’s agenda is ‘Schedule F’, which would see as many as 50,000 federal workers being fired without cause, and being replaced with workers screened by right-wing organisations (to see if their ideologies align with Trump’s)7, thus desecrating the independence and bipartisanship of every federal agency by enabling MAGA control. In addition, the early days of Trump’ second term could see Executive Orders on ideological tests for those entering the country; as well as an increasing of the military’s role on domestic soil, including sending the National Guard to cities like Chicago at Trump’s whim, and a renewed encouragement for police to shoot now, think later.8 The president-elect has also been worryingly unafraid to voice his praise for dictatorial, authoritarian leaders—namely Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin—and their methods, including extrajudicial killings.9 

The rise of book bans in the United States has become an epidemic in recent years, with the most common allegations being LGBTQ+ content, sexual content, and/or discussions of race. To quote from the introduction of my own book:

“A 2024 report from PEN America found that not only are book bans speeding up—with over 4,000 instances of book bans in the first half of the school year, more than all of the previous school year as a whole—but banning activity has been recorded in 42 out of 50 states in the past two and a half years. Additionally, ‘those who want to ban books are attempting to use obscenity law and hyperbolic rhetoric about ‘porn in schools’ to justify banning books about sexual violence and LGBTQ+ topics (and in particular, trans identities) … they have also disproportionately targeted books by women and nonbinary authors …The movement to ban books also continues to focus on themes of race and racism by advancing rhetoric disparaging ‘critical race theory,’ ‘woke ideology,’ and efforts to ensure library collections are diverse and inclusive.’ In the vast majority of cases, these are decidedly not extremist books which may incite dangers or violence; those books … are largely absent from PEN’s lengthy public spreadsheet which tracks book bans (successful and proposed) in American schools.”10

Under Trump, this will only be exacerbated. This is not conjecture: this is clear from many of the publicly available Agenda 47 policies, all of which employ ridiculously hyperbolic language and allegations with no basis in evidence. Take, for instance, the entry from 17 July 2023, on ‘Protecting Students from the Radical Left and Marxist Maniacs Infecting Educational Institutions.’11 Here, Trump plays on the typical right-wing narrative of schools “indoctrinating America’s youth” (no example given), and rallies his followers against the subsequent “anti-American insanity” supposedly being pushed in education. The proposal is mainly focused on college funding, though the rhetoric is a testament to the propaganda entirely underlying Trump’s campaign—including another unfounded Agenda 47 allegation that there are ‘Radical Marxist Prosecutors Destroying America.’ (Joseph McCarthy who?!)

A February 2023 proposition, ‘President Trump’s Plan to Protect Children from Left-Wing Gender Insanity’12, is perhaps the most significant, even putting the disingenuous connotations of “protect[ing] children” in the title aside. Trump’s vow to “stop the chemical, physical, and emotional mutilation of our youth” will likely be easy to accomplish, considering that no such thing actually exists; he goes on to comment that gender affirming care is “a process that includes giving kids puberty blockers, mutating their physical appearance, and ultimately performing surgery on minor children,” before asking “Can you believe this?” Given that zero13 such surgeries have been performed on children (<12) in America, no, we cannot! In an incredibly concerning, if unsurprising, turn, Trump also pledges to “cease all programs that promote the concept of sex and gender transition at any age” in this document, in other words, trying to eliminate the very notion of transgender people’s existence from public life. Most notably for our inquiry, though, this entry is also where censoring policies are being embedded into education:

“My Department of Education will inform states and school districts that if any teacher or school official suggests to a child that they could be trapped in the wrong body, they will be faced with severe consequences, including potential Civil Rights violations for sex discrimination, and the elimination of federal funding. As part of our new credentialing body for teachers, we will promote positive education about the nuclear family, the roles of mothers and fathers, and celebrating rather than erasing the things that make men and women different and unique. I will ask Congress to pass a bill establishing that the only genders recognized by the United States government are male and female—and they are assigned at birth. The bill will also make clear that Title Nine prohibits men from participating in women’s sports. And we will protect the rights of parents from being forced to allow their minor child to assume a gender which is new and an identity without the parents’ consent. The identity will not be new. And it will not be without parental consent. No serious country should be telling its children that they were born with the wrong gender—a concept that was never heard of in all of human history—nobody’s ever heard of this, what’s happening today. It was all when the radical left invented it just a few years ago.”14

There’s a lot to take in here, so we’ll take it chronologically, before getting onto book bans, which will undoubtedly crop up as an effect. (1) The claim that teachers are indoctrinating children to being trans is nothing new and nothing true. The only possible base for this claim is some schools adopting an affirmative approach to trans youth; a method that has repeatedly been proven15 to be the best course of action to protect kids, and which is generally handled on a school by school, case by case basis. (2) While he does not explicitly state it, in this clip anyway, Trump is adamantly trying to align himself with ‘traditional Christian values’. Anybody who knows anything about the separation of church and state should be concerned about the president-elect trying to ensure that teachers are pushing the theological agenda of “the nuclear family, the roles of mothers and fathers, and celebrating rather than erasing the things that make men and women different and unique.” Not only are these policies designed to undermine trans rights, but they explicitly attack gay rights, and oppose accepted ideas of diverging from outdated, stifling gender roles. Additionally, they reek of indoctrination; no explanation is given to why suggesting trans people exist is supposedly indoctrination, while ensuring that Christianity infiltrates public schools apparently isn’t. It also bears mentioning that this fundamentalist neo-conservative rhetoric is being pushed by a man who has publicly violated the majority of Ten Commandments…16 (3) Trump’s visible attempt to prevent legal transition and erase non binary identities sets a dangerous precedent, precursing an end to medical transition—i.e., exercising the right to bodily autonomy—and effectively removing trans people from society. (4) There have been many articles17 written explaining the idiocy of the ‘men in women’s sports!!!!’ fear mongering narrative, so it need not be discussed here. (5) Despite what Trump asserts, transgender people are by no means a new phenomenon. Arguing as such erroneously looks to discredit trans people by denying their history, and is ignorant not just of this long history in the West, but of many global cultures entirely, whereby the gender binary is not necessarily the norm.18

Many have soundly raised fears of book bans surrounding Trump’s re-election. The organisation ‘Authors Against Book Bans’, explains how Trump’s agenda (quoted in their piece, “Pornography, manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children … has no claim to First Amendment protection. Its purveyors are child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women.”) translates to mean that “All LGBTQ+ content will be regarded as pornography. This is already the pernicious lie being used to ban books all over the nation. First Amendment rights will not apply, meaning we will no longer have freedom of speech to protect us.”19

As they explain, such claims of obscenity are not a new tactic—see chapters eight and nine of my book…—but are intended to shock the public, cause complicity and outrage, and eventually revoke constitutional freedoms. Interestingly, despite his self-projection as a mythic defender of free speech, Trump and his followers largely don’t deny that they seek to ban books, they simply justify it (well, vainly try to) through this disgusting rhetoric that books with queer themes are inherently pornographic; the same excuse of minute sexual content has also been used to censor any literature with an inkling of critical race theory.

In the words of Stephana Ferrell, co-founder of the Florida Freedom to Read Project, the proponents of Trump’s censorship have caused a national, right-wing effort that is “redefining government power to restrict access to information in our schools … This movement to protect the innocence of our children believes if children never read it in a book they won’t have to know about it and can go on to lead harmonious lives. But books teach us cautionary tales. They instruct us. You can’t protect innocence through ignorance.”20

Notably, the imminent possibility of book bans has spurned many to take a sudden interest in dystopian literature, Jonny Walfisz explains that, “In the two days since Trump’s re-election, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ has surged in sales moving up 400 places in the US Amazon best sellers chart to the third most popular book. Atwood’s novel saw similar popularity during Trump’s first term.”21 Other books that have surged in popularity include ‘1984’, ‘Fahrenheit 451’, and ‘On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century’.22 Clearly, the public are becoming aware of the dangers, but many may still be in the dark of the insidious narratives behind myths like ‘porn in schools’; not to mention that book bans may just be the beginning, especially considering Trump’s other aforementioned electoral promises towards trans people. 

In conclusion, then, it is evidently not fear-mongering to acknowledge that Donald Trump’s second term could pose a serious threat to cornerstones of democracy, including but not limited to freedoms to read, write, express, and access information. While this is not fear-mongering, many, such as those who are trans, may understandably feel disheartened, even hopeless, but hope is not lost. Below, there are calls to action, and maintaining strength of self should never be doubted—especially to my trans siblings, you have to keep living; do not give in, and do not give up the fight. The freedom to read must not and cannot go undefended.

TAKE ACTION:

  • Read banned books. 
  • Contact local officials and representatives.
  • Support, monetarily is accessible, organisations defending freedoms, such as PEN America.
  • Where possible, simply vote against book bans.
  • Be vocal about the dangers and ways to counteract the censorship trend; this does not just include on social media but in libraries, schools, other now-battlegrounds.

Perhaps, consider supporting a trans teen author and learning more about censorship and book bans?

REFERENCES:

  1. Ben Goldsmith and Lars J. K. Moen, “Trump’s Personality Cult Plays a Part in His Political Appeal,” Scientific American, June 4, 2024, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trumps-personality-cult-plays-a-part-in-his-political-appeal/. ↩︎
  2. Darrell M West, “How Disinformation Defined the 2024 Election Narrative,” Brookings, November 7, 2024, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-disinformation-defined-the-2024-election-narrative/. &, Stephen Collinson, “Trump Seeds Disinformation as He Sets Course for a Possible Oval Office Return,” CNN, October 8, 2024, https://edition.cnn.com/2024/10/08/politics/trump-disinformation-2024-analysis/index.html. &, David Corn, “Trump Is Not Running a Political Campaign. He’s Running a Disinformation Campaign.,” Mother Jones, October 8, 2024, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/10/donald-trump-is-running-a-disinformation-campaign/. ↩︎
  3. Anna Betts, “Donald Trump Repeats Controversial ‘You Won’t Have to Vote Any More’ Claim,” The Guardian, July 30, 2024, sec. US news, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/30/donald-trump-wont-have-to-vote-anymore-fox-interview. ↩︎
  4.  Tom Dreisbach, “Trump Has Made More than 100 Threats to Prosecute or Punish Perceived Enemies,” NPR, October 22, 2024, https://www.npr.org/2024/10/21/nx-s1-5134924/trump-election-2024-kamala-harris-elizabeth-cheney-threat-civil-liberties.  ↩︎
  5. Fin Knight, The Non-People Purges: A Study in Censorship (Independent Publishing Network., 2024). Available at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1805179632. ↩︎
  6. Jill Colvin and Bill Barrow, “Trump’s Vow to Only Be a Dictator on ‘Day One’ Follows Growing Worry over His Authoritarian Rhetoric,” AP News, December 8, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/trump-hannity-dictator-authoritarian-presidential-election-f27e7e9d7c13fabbe3ae7dd7f1235c72. ↩︎
  7.  Lisa Mascaro, “Conservative Groups Draw up Plan to Dismantle the US Government and Replace It with Trump’s Vision,” AP News, August 29, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-conservatives-trump-heritage-857eb794e505f1c6710eb03fd5b58981.  ↩︎
  8. Jill Colvin, “Trump’s Plans If He Returns to the White House Include Deportation Raids, Tariffs and Mass Firings,” AP News, November 12, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/trump-policies-agenda-election-2024-second-term-d656d8f08629a8da14a65c4075545e0f. ↩︎
  9. Jill Colvin and Bill Barrow, “Trump’s Vow to Only Be a Dictator on ‘Day One’ Follows Growing Worry over His Authoritarian Rhetoric,” AP News, December 8, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/trump-hannity-dictator-authoritarian-presidential-election-f27e7e9d7c13fabbe3ae7dd7f1235c72. ↩︎
  10.  Fin Knight, The Non-People Purges: A Study in Censorship (Independent Publishing Network., 2024).  ↩︎
  11. www.donaldjtrump.com, “Agenda47: Protecting Students from the Radical Left and Marxist Maniacs Infecting Educational Institutions | Donald J. Trump for President 2024,” www.donaldjtrump.com, May 2, 2023, https://www.donaldjtrump.com/agenda47/agenda47-protecting-students-from-the-radical-left-and-marxist-maniacs. ↩︎
  12. www.donaldjtrump.com, “President Trump’s Plan to Protect Children from Left-Wing Gender Insanity | Donald J. Trump for President 2024,” www.donaldjtrump.com, February 1, 2023, https://www.donaldjtrump.com/agenda47/president-trumps-plan-to-protect-children-from-left-wing-gender-insanity. ↩︎
  13. Nora Neus, “Biden Administration Clarifies Stance on Surgeries for Trans Minors after Backlash,” The Guardian, July 17, 2024, sec. US news, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/17/biden-administration-transgender-surgeries-minors. ↩︎
  14. www.donaldjtrump.com, “President Trump’s Plan to Protect Children from Left-Wing Gender Insanity | Donald J. Trump for President 2024,” www.donaldjtrump.com, February 1, 2023, https://www.donaldjtrump.com/agenda47/president-trumps-plan-to-protect-children-from-left-wing-gender-insanity. ↩︎
  15. Diana M. Tordoff et al., “Mental Health Outcomes in Transgender and Nonbinary Youths Receiving Gender-Affirming Care,” JAMA Network Open 5, no. 2 (2022), https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.0978. &, Tiffany R. Glynn et al., “The Role of Gender Affirmation in Psychological Well-Being among Transgender Women.,” Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity 3, no. 3 (September 2016): 336–44, https://doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000171. ↩︎
  16. Mona Charen, “Trump Isn’t Much of a Ten Commandments Guy,” Chicago Sun-Times, June 28, 2024, https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2024/06/28/donald-trump-ten-commandments-louisiana-republicans-law-schools-mona-charen. ↩︎
  17. Chase Strangio and Gabriel Arkles, “Four Myths about Trans Athletes, Debunked,” American Civil Liberties Union (American Civil Liberties Union, April 30, 2020), https://www.aclu.org/news/lgbtq-rights/four-myths-about-trans-athletes-debunked. ↩︎
  18. Further reading: ‘Queer was always here: the existence and importance of LGBTQ+ history’, https://www.fintalkshistory.com/?p=228; ‘A history lesson for Trump: Transgender soldiers served in the Civil War’, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/07/26/a-history-lesson-for-trump-transgender-soldiers-served-in-the-civil-war/; ‘How historians are documenting the lives of transgender people’, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/how-historians-are-documenting-lives-of-transgender-people#:~:text=The%20term%20%E2%80%9Ctransgender%E2%80%9D%20wasn%27,always%20challenged%20the%20gender%20binary; ‘The Third Gender and Hijras’, https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/religion-context/case-studies/gender/third-gender-and-hijras. ↩︎
  19. James Folta, “The Republicans’ Project 2025 Is Disastrous for Books,” Literary Hub, November 6, 2024, https://lithub.com/the-republicans-project-2025-is-disastrous-for-books/. ↩︎
  20. Jeffrey Fleishman, “Trump’s Re-Election Raises Fears of More Book Bans in U.S. Schools,” Los Angeles Times, November 21, 2024, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2024-11-21/la-na-pol-trump-schools-book-bans. ↩︎
  21. Jonny Walfisz, “Dystopian Books Fly off the Shelves Following Trump’s Re-Election,” euronews (Euronews.com, November 8, 2024), https://www.euronews.com/culture/2024/11/08/dystopian-books-fly-off-the-shelves-following-trumps-re-election. ↩︎
  22. Ibid. ↩︎

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