NEW YORK – President Donald Trump's executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History" targets the Smithsonian Institution — which has, he contends, “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology.” Critics have pushed back, saying the order is an attempt to whitewash American history.
His order is part of a wave of actions against cultural organizations that he alleges have been overtaken by “woke” ideology, from the Kennedy Center to the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The Voice of America and PBS are also in his sights.
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Trump has tasked Vice President JD Vance to lead the effort to “effectuate the policies” of the executive order, including to ensure no funding goes to “exhibits or programs that degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with Federal law and policy.”
Here's a look at the Smithsonian Institution and what's going on with it.
What is the Smithsonian?
With an annual budget exceeding $1 billion, the Smithsonian is the “world's largest museum, education, and research complex,” according to its website.
It was conceived in the 19th century by the British scientist James Smithson, who bequeathed his estate for the purpose of a Washington-based establishment that helps with "the increase and diffusion of knowledge.” In 1846, 17 years after Smithson's death, President James K. Polk signed legislation calling for the Institution's formation.
The Smithsonian now operates a broad range of cultural centers in Washington and beyond, including the Air and Space Museum, the Portrait Gallery, the National Zoo and the Smithsonian Gardens. Around 60% of its funding is from the federal government, but the Institution also receives money from “trust funds or non-federal funds, which include contributions from private sources,” according to its website.
What are Trump's specific objections?
In his executive order, he made the claim that “the National Museum of African American History and Culture has proclaimed that ‘hard work,’ 'individualism,' and ‘the nuclear family’ are aspects of ‘White culture'" and criticized an upcoming exhibit at the American Women’s History Museum that highlights the achievements of trans athletes. He also singled out an exhibit at the American Art Museum that “promotes the view that race is not a biological reality but a social construct.”
What has Trump said before about the African American museum?
In 2017, Trump visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture with then-Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and Alveda King, a niece of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The president's tour was guided by Lonnie Bunch, the Smithsonian Institution's current secretary and founding director of NMAAHC.
The museum includes an exhibit highlighting the career achievements of Carson, a successful pediatric neurosurgeon who has long been celebrated as a role model to aspiring Black medical doctors.
“I’m deeply proud that we now have a museum that honors the millions of African American men and women who built our national heritage, especially when it comes to faith, culture and the unbreakable American spirit," Trump said following the 2017 tour. "I know President (Barack) Obama was here for the museum’s opening last fall. And I’m honored to be the second sitting president to visit this great museum.”
What has been the reaction to Trump's executive order?
Trump's executive order and its potential impact were met with dismay.
Dorothy Wilson, visiting the National Museum of African American History and Culture for the first time with her two grandchildren on Friday, said she was very concerned about what it would mean for them and others if they weren't able to learn the truth about the past.
"It really hurts generations because your history is who you are,” she said.
Elizabeth Pagano, coming from New York state's Hudson Valley, said: “The history of the United States, and the history of everybody that came through, is everybody’s history. You can't pick and choose your history.”
Holly Brewer, the Burke Professor of American History at the University of Maryland, identified what she called a troubling aspect of the order: It prohibits certain questions from being asked.
“You’re not allowed to ask about how societies have used race to establish and maintain systems of power, privilege and disenfranchisement when, of course, race was explicit in so many laws,” she said. “I don’t know how you can actually study history and be barred from asking questions like that. And I don’t know how you can show American history without acknowledging some of that.”
It's a troubling fiction to insist “that the greatness of America can only exist if we deny ever making mistakes, if we deny ever doing things bad, if we deny that there were times in our history when when terrible things happened,” said Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Ala., which has created sites including a memorial to lynching victims to wrestle with the country's racial history.
“That’s not how you become great,” he said. “That’s not how you become strong.”
In a statement, Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said, “Black history is U.S. history. Women’s history is U.S. history. This country’s history is ugly and beautiful. And each historic struggle for civil rights has advanced our movement toward a truly inclusive, multiracial democracy.”
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Associated Press writer Deepti Hajela in New York and writer Gary Fields and videojournalist Mike Pesoli in Washington contributed.