By Mel Wilson, NASW Senior Policy Adviser
President Donald Trump’s recent Executive Order(EO) targeting the Smithsonian Institution has sparked significant controversy by aiming to eliminate what he describes as “improper ideology” from its programs and exhibits. This order represents the administration’s continuing comprehensive campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
Using the pretext that the Smithsonian Institution has been promoting divisive narratives and undermining American values, Trump’s EO directs the Smithsonian to remove DEI-related content — ostensibly to align the Institution with the administration’s position against what it perceives to be DEI-driven ideological indoctrination.
What is more, the President’s Smithsonian EO is, to many, interconnected to a broader anti-DEI movement which has a much deeper aim of expunging civil rights and anti-racism protections that have been in place for decades. It can be reasoned that Smithsonian EO ignores the nation’s historical truths concerning racism and racialism by cleansing references to that painful past. In many ways, the EO seeks to rewrite history to suit the Trump administration’s narrative of America’s racial and ethnic history. The end result of this EO – and other similar actions – is a distortion of American history for future generations.
Specific language in the Smithsonian EO reinforces that notion of “cleansing” as an underlying intent of the new policy. In its effort to eliminate so-called “improper, racially divisive, or anti-American” ideology from Smithsonian programs, the EO dictates the following actionable steps including:
Funding Restrictions: The order directs Vice President JD Vance to oversee efforts to prohibit federal funding for Smithsonian programs that do not align with the administration’s goals.
Restoration of Monuments: It mandates the restoration of federal parks and monuments that have been removed or altered in the past five years. It is important to draw attention to the fact that the monuments in question are those of Confederate Civil War figures. This directive is significant in the face of the recent movement to rightfully deny national hero status to political and military leaders of the Confederacy. Many of these men were not only traitors to their country but for years after the Civil War were unapologetic white supremacist.
Board Appointments: The order calls for appointing board members who are committed to celebrating America’s heritage and progress. This section of the EO is another avenue for the administration to achieve near-total control of how racial groups and cultures are depicted and contextualized in America. It goes without saying that the Trump administration will appoint individuals who support its anti-DEI and anti-multiculturism point of view.
Specific Museums Targeted: Trump singled out the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Women’s History Museum, and the American Art Museum for criticism, accusing them of promoting divisive narratives.
More concerning is that those who will transform and monitor the Smithsonian’s content and exhibits to reflect “proper ideology” will primarily be officials who embrace far-right ideologies. For that reason, there is little doubt that the Trump administration’s purge will result in a Smithsonian Institution that is resistant to recognizing the contributions and unique histories of communities of color.
This is a substantial consideration given the fact that the Smithsonian Institution has a global reach when it comes to sharing historical content and information. It is the world’s largest museum and research complex, consisting of 19 museums, 21 libraries, the National Zoo, and numerous research centers. Together, the Institution’s facilities house more than 137 million objects, covering art, history, culture, and science. This makes its ideological makeover – filled with its many politically driven distortions – enormously problematic.
Harriett Tubman in 1868 or 1869. Photo from the National Park Service.
A prime example of that mindset is the very recent revelation that the Trump administration scrubbed the National Park Service’s webpage that featured the Underground Railroad. This particular cleansing of racial history targeted Harriet Tubman who – as most Americans know – was the known as “Moses” for leading enslaved people to freedom via the Underground Railroad. As a part of Trump’s near-fanatic determination to eradicate DEI, the Park Service ordered the removal of a significant historic Harriet Tubman quote and her photograph from its Underground Railroad section of the Service’s webpage.
As reported by the Washington Post (which was the first news outlet to publish this issue):
“Tubman’s photograph is now gone. In its place are images of Postal Service stamps that highlight “Black/White cooperation” in the secret network and that feature Tubman among abolitionists of both races…The introductory sentence is gone, too. It has been replaced by a line that makes no mention of slavery and that describes the Underground Railroad as “one of the most significant expressions of the American civil rights movement. The effort ‘bridged the divides of race,’ the page now says.”
While the effort to purge Tubman’s images was not directly related to the Smithsonian EO, it closely intersects with intent and objectives of that EO. In fact, the Washington Post article makes that point when it goes on to say, “ The rewriting of abolitionist sites and history, first reported by the Washington Post, comes as the administration is reinterpreting Civil Rights-era laws and history to focus on “anti-white racism” rather than discrimination against people of color.”
As an update, recent reports indicate that, following a public uproar, the National Park Service (NPS) restored Harriet Tubman’s picture and quotes – in its full original content – to its webpage. While NPS made the correct decision in ordering the restoration, that it was removed in the first place underscores the recklessness of Trump administration officials in executing the Smithsonian EO.
When we look at the Smithsonian EO in context with the National Park Service’s hastily cleansing Harriet Tubman from its webpage, it becomes clear that the Trump administration is fully committed to redefining how diversity is interpreted in America. In their minds, the Smithsonian’s exhibits, artifacts, and writings about race were curated by members of a “revisionist movement.”
Consequently, as stated in the Smithsonian EO, their proposition is that “revisionists” perpetuate a distorted anti-white version of history. Furthermore, they argue that the so-called revisionist movement is a purveyor of racism against whites. This flawed reasoning is one of the foundations for the Trump administration’s justifications issuing the Smithsonian EO.
Hopefully, most Americans have an objective understanding of American history and will recognize that the premise of the Smithsonian EO defies logic. More importantly, they will recognize that the EO disregards the reality that – in our multi-racial and multi-cultural society – each racial and ethnic group has an inherent right to have its history told in an accurate, truthful and respectful way, while at the same time being in concert with the nation’s collective history.
