Trump executive order targets the Smithsonian museums

President Trump accused the Smithsonian Institution of propagating “divisive, race-based ideology” and issued an executive order Thursday demanding an end to federal funding for exhibitions and programs based on racial themes that “divide Americans.”

The order, titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” directs Vice President JD Vance to remove “improper ideology” from the Smithsonian’s 19 museums and the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.

Trump’s order also seeks to restore Department of the Interior public monuments and statues that were removed or changed “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.”

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is directed to look at all “monuments, memorials, statues and markers” that were removed or changed since Jan. 1, 2020. The bulk of public monuments in question honored Confederate leaders and were seen as offensive celebrations of the nation’s racist past. They were taken down after the racial justice protests following the murder of George Floyd by a Minnesota police officer.

The beginning of Trump’s order claims “a concerted and widespread effort” to rewrite American history, “replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.”

Several current exhibitions are listed in the order as evidence of the narrative the order seeks to eradicate, including a current show at the Smithsonian American Art Museum 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.”

It’s unclear whether the Trump administration intends on censoring, for example, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture’s exhibitions related to the history of slavery in America or the accomplishments of Mary McLeod Bethune, who established a school for Black girls during an era when they were not allowed to attend the same campuses as white children.

Thursday’s executive order also cited an upcoming exhibit at the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum, which the order said will celebrate “the exploits of male athletes participating in women’s sports” — an apparent attempt to frame the inclusion of people who are nonbinary or transgender.

The Smithsonian Institution, American Art Museum and American Women’s History Museum have not yet responded to The Times’ requests for comment.

The order said Vance would work with Russell Vought, Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, to make sure that future appropriations made through Congress “prohibit 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.”

This is not the first time a Trump executive order has affected the Smithsonian. In January, one of Trump’s first executive orders effectively banned any mention of diversity, equity and inclusion, prompting the Smithsonian to shutter its diversity offices.

In mid-February, Trump engineered the takeover of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts by dismissing board members appointed by former President Biden and getting himself named chairman.