Source: The Washington Post / Getty
A new executive order from
President Donald Trump is aimed at ending funding for
Smithsonian museums, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
On
Thursday (March 27), President Donald Trump issued a new executive order that squarely targets the Smithsonian Institution—specifically funding for it that promotes programs that advance “improper ideology” and “divisive narratives”. The executive order, entitled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History”, places
Vice President JD Vance in charge of the effort to revamp all areas of the Smithsonian, including the National Zoo. Vance has a position on the Smithsonian Board of Regents. The news left many on social media incensed, with some calling it “whitewashing”.
The order explicitly names the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which was completed in 2016 under the administration of former President Barack Obama, the nation’s first Black president. Trump’s order claims that the NMAAHC “has proclaimed that ‘hard work,’ ‘individualism,’ and ‘the nuclear family’ are aspects of ‘White culture’.” It also re-establishes his 1776 Commission which was shelved by former President Joe Biden in 2021, along with a separate order creating a “Task Force 250” focused on creating a “grand celebration” for the nation’s 250th anniversary. Secretary of The Interior Doug Burgm
The order also signals that Trump aims to reinstall and adjust statues and monuments honoring figures from the Confederate Army of the Civil War that were changed or removed before January 1, 2020, to
“perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history, inappropriately minimize the value of certain historical events or figures, or include any other improper partisan ideology.” Those statues were removed in the wake of protests over the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum complex, which is composed of 21 museums – eleven are situated along the National Mall in Washington, D.C. as well as in Virginia and New York. The chief spokesperson for the Smithsonian Institution, Linda St. Thomas, said “We have no comment for now,” in an email to AP News.
Former museum executive Laura Raicovich blasted the move in an interview with the New York Times: “The order itself is a clear example of the weaponization of language by the administration to undo the necessary historical correctives undertaken by knowledge institutions in recent years.”
