Book bans aren’t a hoax. Calling it a ‘parental rights’ issue is a hoax.

Now that President Donald Trump is back in the White House, he and his minions are adopting key Project 2025 policy proposals, including the systematic gutting of the U.S. Department of Education. 

These observations denote the reality of Trump’s return to office. Part of that reality is for Trump’s team to act as state censors to repress forms of expression otherwise protected by the First Amendment that don’t align with the White House’s ideological viewpoints.

An example of this can be found in a recent release from the Department of Education. On Jan. 24, the department’s Office of Civil Rights announced the dismissal of eleven complaints related to book bans in states controlled by GOP politicians, such as Florida.

In the release, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor claimed that the Biden administration’s push against book bans was nothing but a “hoax.” 

Not only is this false, but Trainor’s claim that book bans are a partisan hoax is a disservice to students, families, and librarians.

Trainor’s explanations emulate the Project 2025 strategy outlined in Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, which calls for eliminating the Department of Education at all costs.

Trump and his puppet master, Elon Musk, are also actively dismantling the department by placing dozens of employees on paid leave, freezing the disbursement of grants and other funding, and gutting diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

Trainor, formerly of the far-right America First Policy Institute (AFPI), has a central role inside this movement to upend decades of governance and strong educational policy.

Trainor is a social conservative and outspoken critic of DEI and critical race theory — both issues taken up by the Christian nationalist front inside the administration.

He is also an attorney who served as senior special counsel for Rep. Jim Jordan’s pointless Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government under the House Judiciary Committee during the last session of Congress.

Trainor worked with the extreme and newly-minded Attorney General Pam Bondi at AFPI as senior litigation counsel.

AFPI is the MAGA movement’s attempt at “think-tank-ery” and presents itself as a Christian nationalist organization backing President Trump’s nominees for office.

AFPI supports close government ties to far-right Christian evangelism through its Center for American Values and its “Biblical Foundations” program, too.

America First Policy Institute has long supported efforts to remove any mention of DEI, critical race theory, LGBTQIA+ material, and representation from national culture.

Trainor has also previously written against affirmative action and racial justice policy.

Linda McMahon, the former administrator of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term, chairs the AFPI and co-chaired the second transition effort.

McMahon is additionally nominated to lead the Department of Education under Trump 2.0.

Considering this, Trainor’s characterization of book bans as political theater conceived by the Democrats and the fact that eliminating the previous administration’s book ban investigation policies was supposed to be a win for “parental rights” is the true hoax.

Parental rights do exist in education.

But so do students’ rights. Students have the First Amendment right to read from books and publications considered controversial, in consultation with parents and teachers. 

According to the American Library Association (ALA), federal courts have ruled against public school boards and governments for issuing aggressive content restrictions.

In a press release replying to Trainor’s statements, ALA states, “Already several states have wasted countless taxpayer dollars defending lawsuits that seek to vindicate students’ Constitutional right to read freely in a safe and supportive environment.” 

ALA and PEN America have tracked instances of book censorship for years. 

Data from ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom shows 1,247 demands to censor library books and other resources were made during the 2023 academic year, a 65 percent surge from 2022. In total, 4,240 book titles were targeted for censorship.

PEN America’s data shows that Florida banned over 4,561 titles in 2023 and 2024 alone.

This was across 33 school districts. Ballotpedia indicates that there are only 69 active school districts in the state, meaning that nearly 48 percent of districts banned books.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was one of the first figures in the MAGA-sphere to claim book bans were a “hoax.” DeSantis used parlance to classify challenges to books, especially young adult fiction, as removing materials reported as “age-inappropriate.”

This is based on dubious Florida laws that heavily regulate public school librarians and educators from discussing topics including LGBTQIA+ identities and material—like books.

Civil society organizations have clarified that school content restriction regulations are tantamount to efforts to censor books and potentially ban titles from public school libraries.

WFSU News reports that DeSantis’s claim that content restrictions are not a “ban” but a “parental rights” measure is difficult to sell to local activists—and observers like myself.

Kasey Meehan, director of PEN America’s Freedom to Read campaign, told WFSU News:

Trainor used the “language” described by Meehan in an official communication from a cabinet department that handles K-12 education policy, such as equitable access issues.

Meehan’s observations also align with the theory that those who support restricting books and their access view these acts as “reasonable” policy solutions.

In October 2023, I wrote for Techdirt about a column by right-wing authors Max Eden and Jay Greene published by Education Week. Eden and Greene wrote that book bans are a product of media hysteria while arguing that restricting books is “reasonable.”

Not only is that a pipe dream, but it shows that content restrictions aren’t remotely reasonable in an environment dedicated to learning and acquiring new information.

While Trainor is serving his purpose here, his ideological alignments and willingness to claim a hoax are comparable to claims the First Amendment doesn’t apply to students.

Despite what Trump’s team may believe, minors have the First Amendment right to learn and receive information in educational settings.

Minors thusly have the right to read controversial books.