MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Rips Into Trump for Canceling Children’s National History Day Contest

MSNBC‘s Chris Hayes was wondering “who voted for this?” on Thursday night (April 10) as he touched on President Donald Trump‘s “seemingly pointless” cancelation of an annual national history contest for children and teenagers.

Hayes spent four minutes of Thursday’s All In talking about Trump’s latest order, saying, “It is almost impossible to keep up with all the destruction being caused by Donald Trump, even when it’s your job to do so like it is mine.”

He continued, “Now, some of this we basically knew was going to happen, right? He campaigned on it. But then there are the things that just never came up in the campaign that are now happening. Some are cruel and seemingly pointless things that make you wonder who voted for this. For instance, who voted against National History Day?”

Hayes described the “nationwide history competition that more than half a million students work to qualify for each year” as “awesome and adorable,” playing clips of the students competing in the tournament in 2024.

“I mean, come on, this is the most amazing, all-American, wholesome, non-ideological, non-political thing I can imagine, right?” the host added. “And if you look at any local news seriously over the past few weeks, you will see articles about students in places like Iowa or Texas or Mississippi or Ohio or Missouri or Pennsylvania proudly qualifying for their regional competition, and then once they clear that, they go to the big national competition, which was set to start in just nine weeks.

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However, as Hayes pointed out, last week, Trump and Elon Musk “killed” the competition’s funding. “Why? Who can say? Who the heck knows?” he stated. “So the executive director had to take the social media asking folks to donate so the kids can make it to the national competition in June.”

“In the context, the federal government and Doge and Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, and the ‘efficiencies’ they’re bringing, $336,000 over two years, or $132,000 for the competition this year, $132,000 is what they’re saving the taxpayer,” Hayes said. “And that’s all that is standing between these kids and this big national award that will imprint on them for life.”

He then said, “Donald Trump could skip one golf weekend down in Florida, and the savings could fund National History Day for decades. Elon Musk gets millions of dollars a day in federal contracts. I wonder if in the campaign, one of the candidates ran on the promise to destroy a history contest for sixth graders, if that would have affected anyone’s decision.”

“Seriously, who voted for this?” he concluded.