Institute of Museum and Library Services funded 'Freedom Trucks' museums that presented fabricated and AI-generated history to the public

On January 21, 2026, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) launched the first of six "Freedom Trucks," mobile museums funded through a $14 million IMLS grant to Freedom 250, the group organizing the administration's celebration of the nation's 250th anniversary. The inaugural truck debuted at Revolution Academy in Summerfield, North Carolina, and the fleet subsequently toured schools, libraries, and communities across the country. IMLS acting director Keith Sonderling, who signed off on the grant, said the trucks would "empower libraries and museums to share their contributions to the American story," with content produced by the conservative media outlet PragerU and Hillsdale College.

Journalists and historians who examined the exhibits found that they presented fabricated and AI-generated historical claims. The trucks featured an artificial-intelligence version of George Washington that delivered a quotation historians said Washington never uttered, and the executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon said the line did not sound like the first president. Exhibit placards falsely stated that Muhammad Ali had "disavowed" Islam — Ali remained a Muslim until his death — and repeated a long-debunked myth that the so-called "Aitken Bible" was authorized by an act of Congress.

Historians and reviewers said the government-funded content advanced a sanitized, Christian-nationalist account of the founding, emphasizing divine providence as the source of the nation's greatness while omitting the expansion of slavery and the role of prominent founders as enslavers. Because the exhibits were produced with two avowedly Christian organizations and framed American history around religious themes, critics said the federally financed program both spread disinformation and used public resources to favor a particular religious narrative.