Ken Burns told the Edinburgh International Film Festival that he removed passages from his forthcoming series The American Revolution because their references to disputed elections and political chaos felt too close to contemporary US politics. He said he feared viewers would assume the material had been inserted as a direct comment on Donald Trump’s return to office, illustrating how historical parallels can shape editorial decisions in documentary filmmaking.

Burns said the cut material included concerns attributed to Thomas Jefferson about someone losing an election but alleging false votes, and to Alexander Hamilton about a popular figure creating chaos while being above the law. He also discussed keeping his long-standing partnership with PBS: although The Vietnam War took 10-and-a-half years and about $30 million to make, he said streaming or premium cable funding might have compromised his control and imposed a much faster production schedule. Burns added that his Barack Obama documentary remains unreleased despite eight two-hour interviews with the former president.