Trump’s order on museums sparks debate on truth-telling

Ernest, a lifelong Washington, D.C. resident, stands in the National Mall with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture’s distinctive shape inspired by African motifs in the background.

DNA Study Revisited by artist Roberto Lugo, part of an exhibition, The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture, at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington. Such exhibitions are threatened by Trump’s latest order.Credit: AP

This museum is under threat, say some experts, because of US President Donald Trump’s new executive order aimed at restricting programming he deems anti-American at federally funded museums and cultural institutions.

Ernest, a vendor who declined to give his last name, says he saw Trump’s order as an attack on the American value of respect for diverse opinions.

“We are a diverse country – made of all races, all cultures, and they’re trying to take it away,” Ernest said on Friday.

It was an illustration of how Trump’s order, issued on Thursday, spurred everyday Americans, historians and politicians to consider the meaning of patriotism and the purpose of history.

Singling out the Smithsonian Institution, which comprises 21 museums and the National Zoo, Trump ordered the removal of what he called “improper ideology”. The president also instructed Vice President J.D. Vance, a member of the Smithsonian Institution’s 17-member Board of Regents, to oversee the taking-down of monuments and sculptures that the order called “divisive narratives that distort our shared history”.

The Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture, home of the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.Credit: AP

An example cited in the order included a Smithsonian American Art Museum exhibit titled The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture which, according to the museum’s website, “examines for the first time the ways in which sculpture has shaped and reflected attitudes and understandings about race in the United States”.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture was accused in the order of attempting to portray “American and Western culture as harmful”.

Smithsonian officials and several Democratic and Republican members of its board did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.

Cindy Werner, a Republican and state director for the Frederick Douglass Foundation in Wisconsin, said Trump’s order “will expand the different stories in America’s history, highlighting what makes our country great — allowing more highlights in what brings us together rather than dividing us”.

Trump’s order reflects the rhetoric of Project 2025, a policy blueprint published before Trump’s victory by conservative thinkers, some of whom have since taken prominent roles in his administration.

“America is now divided between two opposing forces: woke revolutionaries and those who believe in the ideals of the American revolution,” according to Project 2025.

Many historians have challenged that perspective.

Kyle Mays, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, called Trump’s executive order a “fascist move” to erase the history of racism and sexism that shaped the United States.

“The truth in American history requires honesty based on evidence, not ideology rooted in erasing what happened,” said Mays, professor of African American Studies, American Indian Studies and History at UCLA.

Historian Clayborne Carson, an expert on Martin Luther King Jr., said that as a historian, he considered many aspects of the past. “The people that are pointing the finger saying they’re revising history, in some respects, that’s the division of the country.”

Since taking office on January 20, the Trump administration has launched efforts to dismantle federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that have led to the removal, sometimes briefly, of historical content about African Americans and other minorities from government websites, and intensified attacks on educational institutions. The administration has focused on museums, universities, and public schools that emphasise race, systemic inequities, and diverse cultural contributions.

“I don’t know what’s left of the African American History Museum after this order, depending on the interpretation of it,” said Iowa State University history professor Amy Rutenberg, who focuses on modern American women’s and gender history at Iowa State.

Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat senator from Nevada who is on the Smithsonian board, said Trump’s order was a “weak, pathetic effort to distract from his disastrous plans to cut Medicaid and use tariffs to raise costs for middle-class Americans”.

Tina van Pelt came to the National Mall on Friday with her child and friends to see the cherry blossoms, and when she heard about Trump’s order the night before, she said it shocked her.

“I would hate to see the quality of our exhibits go down due to an idea that it’s unpatriotic to show the actual history of our country.”

REUTERS

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