White House to Give Smithsonian 120 Days to Reflect 'American Ideals'

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

White House to Give Smithsonian 120 Days to Reflect 'American Ideals'
Divisive language could be replaced with unifying, patriotic wording, administration says

The Trump administration informed the Smithsonian Institution on Tuesday that it will check its current and planned exhibitions' displayed wording, websites, and social media "to assess tone, historical framing and alignment with American ideals." A letter from the White House said the museums will have 120 days to make any changes the administration wants, the New York Times reports. The changes could include "replacing divisive or ideologically driven language with unifying, historically accurate and constructive descriptions," the letter to Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch says.

The letter provides the first details of the administration's plan to scrutinize the Smithsonian, per the Washington Post, to ensure adherence to Trump's goals of removing what he called its "improper ideology" in favor of "truth and sanity." The Smithsonian released a statement later Tuesday pledging cooperation with the administration and saying its work "is grounded in a deep commitment to scholarly excellence, rigorous research, and the accurate, factual presentation of history."

A historian called the Trump administration plan an affront to the professionals trained to ensure historically accurate presentations, per the Wall Street Journal. "If those things are taken out of the hands of historians, the public stands to lose a great deal in having reliable and engaging content that tells a whole and complex story of the American past," said Sarah Weicksel, executive director of the American Historical Association.

https://www.newser.com/story/373436/white-house-plans-full-review-of-smithsonians-exhibits.html

[orangecrush]

1. Everything he touches dies.

[Blues Heron]

2. Let's just get all Orwellian that's sooo American. Tired of these snowflaking idiots

[Turbineguy]

3. They should festoon the place with pictures of trump.

And give out free chewing tobacco at the door.

[Permanut]

5. Right by the statue..

[Irish_Dem]

4. Reflect the ideals of an ignorant insane psychopath..

Sounds about right for the MAGAs.

[msongs]

6. well there goes the "sex workers who have live in the white house" exhibit nt

[Uncle Joe]

7. Don't instigate a mob to attack the House of "We the People" and don't be a pedophile would be a good start.

Thanks for the thread BlueWaveNeverEnd

[B.See]

8. Translation: Underhanded, lying, fact altering con-artist

bigot bullshitter wants Smithsonian to rewrite history the way HE wants it written, or ELSE.

any questions?

[aeromanKC]

9. Trump's America Hitler's Germany

[Skittles]

10. cannot hurt the fee fees of white supremacists

no INDEED

[RedWhiteBlueIsRacist]

11. One thing is for sure, the goddamned White House no longer has any fucking ideals.

[LudwigPastorius]

12. The Nazis had a word for it, Gleichschaltung.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reich_Chamber_of_Culture

[Historic NY]

13. KKK & John Birch Society exhibits , ought to set him off.

[chowder66]

14. Just put up a large outdoor movie screen

With scenes from Moscow.

[IcyPeas]

15. Magats dont go to museums... or operas... or plays.

This is solely to piss us off. So petty.

He ought to open his own museum.... actually it would be very similar to his gift shops.

Tourism to DC is going to take a hit.

[hunter]

16. Yes! A Freedom of Speech exhibit!

THE EMPEROR HAS NO BALLS!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor_Has_No_Balls

[Doodley]

17. White House to Give Smithonian 120 Days to change American History to Reflect the Ideals of a Vile, Ignorant Bigot.

[Solly Mack]

18. White sheets, flaming crosses, and different colored Jello molds?

[MissouriDem47]

19. Is there nothing that TACO won't ruin?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

20. MaddowBlog-Trump complains that 'woke' Smithsonian focuses on 'how bad slavery was'

The president’s campaign against the Smithsonian Institution was already indefensible. With new false and weird claims, it’s suddenly even worse.

Just when it seemed Trump’s offensive against the Smithsonian couldn’t get more ridiculous, he started whining today about its museums focusing on “how bad Slavery was.” www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-08-19T20:24:20.849Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-complains-woke-smithsonian-focuses-bad-slavery-was-rcna225924

Last week, the White House let the Smithsonian know that it has plans to conduct a far-reaching review of its museums to ensure the content it presents to the public aligns with Trump’s views on American history. It’s against this backdrop that NBC News reported:

Trump voiced outrage this afternoon in a post on Truth Social about the types of exhibits shown in the Smithsonian and other museums across the country. ‘The Museums throughout Washington, but all over the Country are, essentially, the last remaining segment of ‘WOKE.’ The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future,’ he said.

.....The harangue comes just days after Stephen Miller, the deputy White House chief of staff, falsely claimed that Smithsonian exhibits have “clearly been taken over by leftwing activists” who have “obscenely defaced this beloved institution.”....

What’s more, the idea that exhibits talks about “how bad Slavery was” necessarily leads to questions about which parts of slavery the president believes weren’t “bad.”.....

Over the course of seven months, Trump has taken steps to exert unusual influence and control over everything from the economy to higher education, the judiciary to the media, private businesses to nonprofit organizations, the military to cultural institutions, labor unions to law enforcement, health care to sports teams, independent federal agencies to banks, the legal profession to the entertainment industry.

The president is now making it painfully clear that he has museums in his sights, too.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

25. Mike Luckovich-The Smithsonian after trump is finished

— Mike Luckovich (@mluckovich.bsky.social) 2025-08-20T20:29:12.098Z

[Prairie Gates]

21. The Smithsonian is ALREADY a US friendly propaganda center

That's what's funny about this. They're talking about eliminating the slight, very marginal whiffs of critique that appear in these institutions.

Just as the universities were already clownish milquetoast temples to neoliberal capitalism. They went in to eliminate the tiny and almost inconsequential cultures of critique in the universities.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

22. The trumpies are partnering with PragerU, who said that slavery was "no big deal" and "better than being killed"

Mind you, a week ago, they partnered with PragerU, who said that slavery was “no big deal” and “better than being killed”

— Democrats (@democrats.org) 2025-08-19T20:04:45.705Z

[Efilroft Sul]

23. Telling Nazis and their whitewashing of history to fuck off is an American ideal. We should all be so idealistic.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

24. Trump says Smithsonian should portray America's 'Brightness,' not 'how bad Slavery was'

Making America great again means going back to a time where racial discrimination and oppression was okay. Now trump wants to make America great again by bringing back slavery. trump wants to make America hate again

Link to tweet

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-smithsonian-portray-americas-brightness-bad-slavery/story

President Donald Trump on Tuesday confirmed the White House is conducting a review of the Smithsonian museums and expressed frustration over their portrayal of dark parts of America's history, including slavery.

"The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been -- Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future," Trump wrote on his social media platform.

"We are not going to allow this to happen, and I have instructed my attorneys to go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities where tremendous progress has been made," Trump added. "This Country cannot be WOKE, because WOKE IS BROKE. We have the 'HOTTEST' Country in the World, and we want people to talk about it, including in our Museums."

The Smithsonian declined to comment.

[kimbutgar]

26. I hope those museum workers are hiding the artifacts for when this reign of evil terror is over and they can return them

When the orange pedo felon is gone.

[The Blue Flower]

27. The stench of Soviet Central Planning

His little fingers have to poke around in everything.

[D_Master81]

28. More small government conservatism I see

More Trumplican BS that you have to do things to his liking or face the consequences. I’m sure the small government ideals of the Republicans will fight back against this.

[JCMach1]

29. The enshitification of the Smithsonian

Fuck the 🍊 🧩 of 💩

[Paladin]

30. WHITE RACIST "American Ideals."

Yet another instance where the trump regime is just handing Democrats an issue we can seize and use for maximum social and political effect---if we're smart enough and brave enough to do so. We need to be taking far greater advantage of these things when they fall in our laps.