A view of the Smithsonian Institution Building in Washington, D.C., at sunset in September 2013.
Mladen Antonov/AFP via Getty Images
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Mladen Antonov/AFP via Getty Images
The Trump Administration has been moving quickly to eliminate what it considers “woke ideology” from the country’s arts and culture institutions.
On Thursday, President Trump signed an executive order that targets two recipients of federal funds: The Smithsonian Institution, a vast collection of research centers, museums and galleries, including the Air & Space Museum and the American Art Museum; and the monuments and memorials overseen by the Department of the Interior.
What does the order say?
The order is called “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” and the White House says the goal is “revitalizing key cultural institutions and reversing the spread of divisive ideology.”
It says that the Smithsonian promotes “narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.”
But Jim Grossman, the executive director of the American Historical Association, says, “It misrepresents the work of the Smithsonian, which is one of the great research institutions in the world. Arguing that the Smithsonian somehow misleads people, somehow is unpatriotic, somehow is saying things that are not true. That’s simply not true.”
Yet the order directs Vice President JD Vance — who is on the Smithsonian’s board — to eliminate “improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology” from the museums, and to work with Congress to keep from funding exhibits or programs that “divide Americans by race.”
It singles out the forthcoming American Women’s History Museum, which does not yet have a physical building, and orders that it does not “recognize men as women.” This is how the Trump Administration has been referring to transgender women. An exhibit the museum curated, which is currently at the National Museum of American History, includes a T-shirt from a trans, non-binary athlete.
The executive order also directs the Department of the Interior, which oversees the National Parks and other public lands, to restore markers, statues and other memorials that have been “improperly removed or changed in the last five years to perpetuate a false revision of history or improperly minimize or disparage certain historical figures or events.”
Five years ago, in 2020, statues around the country were defaced or demolished as part of the Black Lives Matter protests. But national parks and historic sites around the country also have revised their messaging to reflect a more complicated understanding of American history, which includes not only American achievements but also the country’s underbelly, like the slaveholding of the Founding Fathers, the invisibility of LGBTQ people throughout much of history, and the taking of Native American land.
A portrait of President Trump in the America’s Presidents exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., in May 2021.
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What is possible for the administration to do?
The Smithsonian isn’t a federal agency — it’s a public-private partnership. But it does receive federal funds, and its employees are a mix of civil servants and people with “trust fund positions,” which are roles funded through sources that include business activities and grants.
Its governing body is a Board of Regents, whose members include the Vice President, the Chief Justice of the United States, three Senators, three Representatives and nine citizens. In the executive order, Trump said Vice President JD Vance would work with Congress to appoint citizens who were broadly in agreement with the order.
It is not clear what power the administration currently has over the Board of Regents, but the order ties future funding to compliance.
What is the Smithsonian’s response?
The Smithsonian has not yet released a statement.
But in response to a January executive order from President Trump, which forbid organizations receiving federal funds from operating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs, it did close its diversity office.
