Trump Orders Smithsonian Signage to Warn of Political Bias
The White House alleges that the Smithsonian and the NMAH “have directed the museum’s mission... toward extreme political activism, rooted in Marxism, to divide, dispirit and discourage Americans”
National Museum of American History. Image via Wikimedia Commons
An executive order from Donald Trump has ordered the Smithsonian Institution to “install temporary signage along the NPS-maintained sidewalks and walkways used by the public to access” the National Museum of American History (NMAH). It also mandates that signage inform visitors “that the museum exhibits should be renovated consistent with the findings” of a report released by the Domestic Policy Council on 04 July, detailing the White House’s disapproval of various exhibits.
In a document accompanying the executive order, the White House alleges that the Smithsonian and the NMAH “have directed the museum’s mission away from historical education and scholarship of a shared national inheritance to be celebrated, and toward extreme political activism, rooted in Marxism, to divide, dispirit and discourage Americans”.
Appearing before the US House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Delivery Government Efficiency on 21 and 22 July, the Smithsonian’s director, Anthea Hartig, stated that: ““Examining the harder chapters of our history is not the same as hostility toward America. We can and do honour the Declaration [of Independence], the Revolution, the Constitution and our national symbols, and also tell the truth about the times the country fell short of its own founding ideals. Telling our history fully is not anti-American. It is a form of respect for the American people and a commitment to constantly be in pursuit of ‘a more perfect union’.”
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