Trump executive order on Smithsonian targets funding to programs with ‘improper ideology’ - WTOP News
President Donald Trump revealed his intentions to reshape the Smithsonian Institution with an executive order Thursday that targets funding to programs with “divisive narratives” and “improper…
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Trump Signs Order To Restore Racist Monuments, Remove 'Anti-America' Ideology
The directive is "restoring truth and sanity to American history," the White House said.
Trump executive order on Smithsonian targets funding to programs with ‘improper ideology’
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump revealed his intentions to reshape the Smithsonian Institution with an executive order Thursday that targets funding to programs with “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology.”
Trump said there has been a “concerted and widespread” effort over the past decade to rewrite American history by replacing “objective facts” with a “distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.”
He signed an executive order putting Vice President JD Vance in charge of an effort to “remove improper ideology” from the Smithsonian Institution, including its museums, education and research centers and the National Zoo.
Trump’s order specifically names the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Women’s History Museum, which is in development.
“Museums in our Nation’s capital should be places where individuals go to learn — not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history,” the order said.
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The White House said the order was part of “restoring truth and sanity to American history by revitalizing key cultural institutions and reversing the spread of divisive ideology.”The executive order calls for the removal of “improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology from the Smithsonian and its museums, education and research centers, and the National Zoo,” pointing to exhibits that address the United States’ history of racism and celebrate the transgender rights movement.
“The prior administration pushed a divisive ideology that reconstrued America’s promotion of liberty as fundamentally flawed, infecting revered institutions like the Smithsonian and national parks with false narratives,” the order reads.
Trump’s directive also calls on the Secretary of the Interior to restore statues and other monuments that have been “improperly removed or changed in the last five years to perpetuate a false revision of history or improperly minimize or disparage certain historical figures or events.”
Many monuments to racist figures in American history were vandalized and ultimately removed during the 2020 uprising in response to the murder of George Floyd. In the capital, those include memorials honoring Confederate generals and a pro-slavery Supreme Court justice who said Black people were not American citizens.
While in office, former President Joe Biden supported the removal of racist statues from public squares and advocated for moving them to museums focused on that aspect of American history
Trump has signed more than 100 executive orders ― directives that do not require Congressional approval ― just two months into his term, far outpacing the number of orders signed by at least the past 14 presidents.
Last time I was in DC it was closed all day due to a mechanical issue on the day we had tickets.
They know exactly what they are doing and who they are talking to.
