Trump Appoints 18 Conservatives To Commission For ‘Patriotic Education’

With only 32 days left in his administration, President Donald Trump appointed 18 new members to the “1776 Commission” on Friday to bolster the “patriotic education” group.

The White House announced Friday that Larry Arnn, president of the conservative Hillsdale College and longtime Trump supporter, will lead the group and serve as chairman. Matthew Spalding, vice president of the college’s Washington D.C. operations and dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government, has also been appointed executive director of the Commission.

In addition to Arnn, 17 others will be appointed to the panel, including Charlie Kirk, who founded the conservative campus group Turning Point USA; Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, who has declared his state “Trump Country;” Silicon Valley CEO and Trump fundraiser Scott McNealy; Brooke Rollins, Trump’s domestic policy adviser; and Mike Gonzalez, a Heritage Foundation senior fellow.

“The 1776 Committee was formed to advise the President about the core principles of the American founding and how to protect those principles by promoting patriotic education… The path to a renewed and confident national unity is through rediscovery of our shared identity rooted in those principles,” Spalding said in a statement.

According to Hillsdale College, Spalding took a temporary leave of absence from his duties for the appointment.

Last month, Trump directed the commission’s creation via executive order to “better enable a rising generation to understand the history and principles of the founding of the United States in 1776 and to strive for a more perfect Union.”

The appointments are for two years, but it is unclear whether those Trump picked will ever meet.