Pop Quiz: Which one of these is Big Brother from George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, and which is President Trump’s official portrait?

IT’S A TRICK QUESTION! Orwell never produced a definitive image of Big Brother. He just described him as a person who looked a lot like the image on the left, which is of Josef Stalin, the authoritarian Soviet leader that Orwell used as the model for his dystopian government. The one on the right is Trump’s official Presidential portrait.

BONUS QUIZ QUESTION NUMBER ONE: which portrait do you think ‘is watching you’ more?

I bring this up because Federal District Judge and Bush appointee Cynthia Rufe quoted Orwell’s 1984 in a recent ruling. The ruling stopped (technically enjoined) President Trump from erasing US history. Specifically, Trump’s Interior Department wanted to hide the fact that George Washington owned slaves. Here are the opening two paragraphs from the Judge’s ruling, starting with a quote from the novel ‘1984’ where Orwell is describing the Ministry of Truth:

“All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary. In no case would it have been possible, once the deed was done, to prove that any falsification had taken place.

George Orwell, 1984.

As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s 1984 now existed, with its motto “Ignorance is Strength,” this Court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims—to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts. It does not.”

The main character of the novel, Winston Smith, works in the Ministry of Truth, and his job is to rewrite and reissue books, magazines, newspapers, and any other printed material where the State has decided that certain things in the past are to be forgotten and replaced with whatever the Government deems to be true today.

The case is ‘City of Philadelphia v Doug Burghum et. al.’ It involves ‘Presidents House,’ where George Washington and John Adams lived briefly as the first and second Presidents, and which is now a National Park in Philadelphia. The legislation authorizing the home as a National Historical site requires that both the city of Philadelphia and the Department of the Interior agree on any changes made to the exhibits. The Interior Department violated this law by unilaterally removing the parts of Washington’s home exhibit that referred to Washington’s ownership of slaves. The City then sued the Department, claiming that they had no authorization to do this, as the law was clear. Judge Rufe was incensed over this usurpation of Congressional authority and flagrant lawlessness. Her ruling is worth reading in its original: https://tinyurl.com/2cu7a4tt. 

The Interior Department claims to be following Executive Order (EO) 14253 issued in March 2025, which is titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” Apparently whoever came up with this title had no sense of historical irony, given that EO14253 instructs Federal workers to carry out actions that closely parallel those of the Orwellian Ministry of Truth. While calling for these actions, the EO blames Trump’s former political opponents for erasing history, while, by erasing it, Trump is now restoring the truth.

The text of EO 14253 can be read here: https://tinyurl.com/mpah4aua. It is worth a look, in particular section 4.a(iii). 

The question before the court is “what happens if the President of the United States tells you to do something that is illegal?” Judge Rufe’s answer was: “you should stop doing it, and fix anything that you broke.” The lawsuit has not been resolved; at this point, the Judge has simply ordered the Interior Department to put things back for now, pending the slow turning of the Federal wheels of justice.

I strongly advise all of you to get in touch with your members of Congress, especially if they are Republicans. It is our only way to get the Federal government, under our current President, to stop violating laws passed by Congress. The courts, by design, can only act after a law has been broken and charges are brought or a suit is filed. (Recall that the US Constitution requires the President to execute Congressional laws as they are written and interpreted by the Supreme Court, not as he/she would like them to have been written. Believe it or not, this is actually part of the President’s Oath of Office.)

BONUS QUIZ QUESTION NUMBER TWO: You get two more quiz points if you knew what a ‘palimpsest’ was, or looked it up. You’re welcome.