The White House on Thursday reportedly released a list of 20 Smithsonian exhibits that the Trump administration says promote ideological narratives rather than historical facts, marking the latest effort by the president to challenge what he sees as a liberal bias in American cultural institutions.
Items flagged include a display at the National Museum of the American Latino that portrays the United States as “stolen land” and depicts American history as rooted in “colonization.”
The administration also criticized the National Museum of American History for its characterization of Benjamin Franklin, noting that while the founding father was a slave owner, his scientific accomplishments are being framed as contingent on the “social and economic system he worked within.”
A separate exhibit that drew scrutiny features an art piece of migrants watching July 4 fireworks “through an opening in the U.S.-Mexico border wall,” which reportedly claims that America’s founders “feared non-white immigration.”
Trump’s administration also highlighted several exhibits focusing on transgender communities.
The American History Museum’s “LGBTQ+ History” display and another celebrating the 50th anniversary of Title IX were singled out, particularly in light of the president’s February executive order barring transgender women from competing in women’s sports.
“The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future,” Trump wrote Tuesday on Truth Social. “We are not going to allow this to happen, and I have instructed my attorneys to go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities where tremendous progress has been made. This Country cannot be WOKE, because WOKE IS BROKE.”
Trump has previously praised museums that highlight the achievements of historically disenfranchised Americans. During his first term, he lauded the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture for portraying both the harsh realities of slavery and the accomplishments of Black citizens.
Critics have pushed back against the administration’s critique. Toni Draper, publisher of the Afro-American Newspaper, which helped curate materials for the museum, wrote that “just as the Holocaust is remembered in all its brutality, so must America reckon with the truth of chattel slavery, Jim Crow and racial terror.” She added, “But history is not meant to comfort — it is meant to confront. And only in confrontation do we find the lessons that lead us forward.”
Several items on the White House list were previously featured in an article by The Federalist criticizing the Smithsonian for “anti-American propaganda.”
The Heritage Foundation has also condemned the Smithsonian Latino exhibit as a “disgrace” to American history.
In response, the Trump administration plans to work with the Smithsonian to review eight of its museums to bring exhibits into alignment with the president’s vision of American history.
Institutions under review include the National Museum of American History, National Museum of Natural History, National Museum of African American History and Culture, National Museum of the American Indian, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, National Portrait Gallery, and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
The administration’s effort underscores a broader push to ensure that federally funded institutions present history in a manner the president considers accurate and balanced, countering what he views as a pervasive “woke” influence in cultural education.
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