After a period of relative quiet, the Trump administration is now bearing down upon the Smithsonian Institution, the steward of some of the nation’s greatest museums and research centers. The administration has given the institution a Tuesday deadline to comply with a “comprehensive internal review” of its museums and exhibits as the administration demands that it align itself with “American ideals.”
In August, the Trump administration sent a letter to the Smithsonian demanding that comprehensive review in compliance with an executive order entitled, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” That executive order is a radical edict to re-write history and deny, among other things, the existence of racism in America.
The executive order lays out a clear agenda to purge the institution of its long-held independence from the executive branch.
The executive order accuses the Smithsonian of having come “under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology” that has “promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.” It lists as an example an exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum that explores the idea that “[s]ocieties including the United States have used race to establish and maintain systems of power, privilege, and disenfranchisement.”
The executive order lays out a clear agenda to purge the institution of its long-held independence from the executive branch: It declares a mission to “restore the Smithsonian Institution to its rightful place as a symbol of inspiration and American greatness” by “seeking to remove improper ideology.” It also prohibits “expenditure on exhibits or programs that degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with federal law and policy.”
In that August letter, the Trump administration called for a huge amount of material from the Smithsonian to vet, including exhibition text, wall didactics, websites, education materials, social media content, and plans for upcoming exhibits to “assess tone, historical framing, and alignment with American ideals.”
The New York Times reports that the Smithsonian initially only partially complied, by providing “only part of the lengthy list of requested documents.” And that for a while it seemed that the Trump administration may have lost its focus on fully scrutinizing the Smithsonian, after its White House aide focused on executing the order got another job.
But the White House sent another letter in December that said, “We wish to be assured that none of the leadership of the Smithsonian museums is confused about the fact that the United States has been among the greatest forces for good in the history of the world.” And in a clear threat to the Smithsonian’s financial viability, it warns, “As you may know, funds apportioned for the Smithsonian Institution are only available for use in a manner consistent with” the executive order and its previous demands. This is potentially an existential threat for the Smithsonian. As the Times reports, over 60% of its funding comes from the federal government. Now the question is whether it will feel obligated to alter its current exhibitions and materials and/or future plans to avoid getting funding cut off. This is often how censorship works. Authorities lay out such severe punishments that organizations and people preemptively censor themselves. It may already be happening: The Washington Post reports, for example, that days ahead of the deadline the National Portrait Gallery replaced a photo of Trump taken by a photojournalist with a stern-looking one from a White House photographer, and the plaque has been changed to remove references to his impeachments and the Jan. 6 insurrection. At stake is freedom of intellectual expression at some of the most exceptional museums I’ve ever been to, including the National Museum of American History, the National Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Millions of people visit these museums every year, and they get to learn and think and reflect in beautiful spaces that are created through the collaboration of curators, artists, and scholars who try to use art and memory to explore American life. Trump wants to gut these places and reshape them into organs of MAGA propaganda. We should all hope he fails.
Zeeshan Aleem is a writer for MS NOW. Sign up for his newsletter. 
