Trump Demands Smithsonian Toe the Line and Do Its Part to Whitewash America’s Past—or Lose Funding As Outrage Mounts Over Attempt to ‘Erase History’
President Donald Trump has claimed to have “saved free speech” and he’s issued an executive order empowering Vice President JD Vance to “eliminate improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology” from the 21 museums and learning centers operated by the Smithsonian Institution, including the National Zoo.
Vance, who currently serves on the Smithsonian Institution’s Board of Regent, will coordinate with the White House budget office to ensure future funding isn’t spent on programs that “degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with federal law and policy.”
The order could have a chilling effect on programs or exhibits that chronicle shameful chapters in American history, such as slavery or Jim Crow laws.
“Museums in our Nation’s capital should be places where individuals go to learn—not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history,” Trump said Thursday. “To advance this policy, we will restore the Smithsonian Institution to its rightful place as a symbol of inspiration and American greatness.”
Trump addressed what he called a “concerted and widespread” effort over the past decade to rewrite American history by replacing “objective facts” with a “distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth,” adding that it casts the “founding principles” of the United States in a “negative light.”
During his re-election campaign, Trump threatened to withhold funding from schools that taught slavery was central to American history. The president’s pledge closely aligns with the stated goals of Project 2025, the right-wing policy document that Trump disavowed on the campaign trail but has widely implemented since reassuming power.
In his latest order, the president has specially targeted the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened in 2016 as President Barack Obama was concluding his second term.
Trump says the museum promotes “divisive narratives,” alleging the museum “has proclaimed that ‘hard work,’ ‘individualism,’ and ‘the nuclear family” are aspects of ‘White culture.’”
Trump has also put the spotlight on the Women’s History Museum, which he claimed planned to recognize “men as women.”
Trump had made no secret of his attempt to reshape the country’s culture, which he says has been corrupted by “wokeness.” He’s signed a slew of executive orders aimed at eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion measures within the federal government, which has elicited a number of legal challenges.
The president has already fired the board of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and installed himself as chairman. The move led to widespread criticism from actors and directors, causing several to cancel upcoming performances. Since then, Trump-friendly acts, like the J6 chorus and Lee Greenwood, have been booked in their place.
The president’s acolytes have also pushed to implement similarly themed, MAGA-friendly materials into public schools. In Oklahoma, teachers are encouraged to use content created by PragerU, founded by conservative radio host Dennis Prager and funded by right-wing donors. PragerU has more than 3 million subscribers on YouTube and calls itself “a free alternative to the dominant left-wing ideology in culture, media, and education.”
America’s troubled racial history is de-emphasized, if not whitewashed, in the PragerU curriculum.
According to Yahoo! News, a PragerU video features an animated Frederick Douglass calling slavery “a compromise” while criticizing abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison for being too strident. Another PragerU video, about the end of the Civil War, has Ulysses S. Grant complimenting Confederate general Robert E. Lee, calling him “a good man” who just happened to be caught on the opposite side.
In the “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” order, Trump has called for the interior secretary to restore federal properties, including parks, memorials and statues, which “have been improperly removed or changed in the last five years to perpetuate a false revision of history.” In most cases, the names or statues removed were of Confederate generals.
Recasting troubled times in a more positive light is at the heart of Trump’s agenda, which he said aims to promote “American greatness.” Vance will join the Smithsonian Board of Regents and to spearhead the purge. The Smithsonian museums offer free entry to up to 30 million visitors each year.
The blowback to Trump’s plan has been swift and hostile.
One volunteer at the NMAAHC noted that the museum helps people trace their genealogy back to slavery.
“The rest of the museum talks about the slave trade, slavery & Civil Rights,” he wrote on X. “Let that f****** piece of s*** try to change that.”
Another former volunteer wrote, “Sometimes history is hard and painful, but needs to be seen and heard so it’s not repeated and that is not anti-American as he claims.”
One critic described the order as “a direct attack,” while another pointed out that Trump’s order is “an attempt to erase history.” Another added, “Evil and cruel intent, always smh.”
“First Trump removes any reference of diversity from the present — now he’s trying to remove it from our history,” Texas congresswoman Jasmine Crockett wrote on X. “Let me be PERFECTLY clear— you cannot erase our past and you cannot stop us from fulfilling our future.”
