In a bid to modernize the celebration of America’s semiquincentennial, the Trump administration’s nonprofit organization, Freedom 250, has unveiled a gallery of Founding Fathers and Revolutionary War figures reimagined through artificial intelligence. The portraits, created using Google’s generative AI, have drawn sharp criticism from historians for their lack of historical accuracy and uniformity.
The AI-generated images depict figures like Dr. Benjamin Rush with flowing curls and a modern, LinkedIn-ready stance, a stark contrast to his actual 1812 portrait by Thomas Sully, which showed him with flat hair and a long nose. Similarly, Abigail Adams appears airbrushed and exaggerated, resembling a movie star rather than the real woman, whose 1766 pastel portrait shows a hooked nose and thin lips.
Historians note that the portraits share a striking similarity: nearly all men wear identical blue coats and adopt poses reminiscent of modern CEO imagery, such as crossed arms or fingers cradling chins. This uniformity, according to Zara Anishanslin, a historian at the University of Delaware, sends a political message that the founders were a united group, a narrative she says is historically inaccurate.
Other anachronisms include Thomas Jefferson’s eyes being changed from brown to blue, and the absence of Martha Washington, while Dolley Madison—who was only 8 during the Revolution—is included. The only Black figure, poet Phillis Wheatley, wears a pastel blue dress that sets her apart from the others, further highlighting the gallery’s political undertones.
The gallery is intended as an educational resource, with capsule biographies and videos produced in partnership with the conservative media organization PragerU. However, critics argue that the glossy, uniform images prioritize a romanticized, triumphal past over historical truth, similar to the way Hollywood once collaborated with the Department of Defense to produce patriotic films.
While some defend the artistic license, comparing it to works like Emanuel Leutze’s 1851 painting of Washington crossing the Delaware, historians emphasize that this gallery purports to be a history site, not entertainment. The use of AI and the SynthID watermark only adds to the controversy, raising questions about the role of technology in shaping public memory.
