President Donald Trump is dangerously politicizing the Smithsonian to whitewash slavery, indigenous genocide, and bigotry, say the Democrats and the mainstream news media. The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that Trump “has engaged in a broad national effort to reshape the stories of America told by cultural institutions controlled or influenced by the federal government.” On July 4, the White House Domestic Policy Council released a 162-page report, “Saving America’s Story,” which concluded that the museum “cannot be trusted to tell America’s story honestly and in a way that is inspiring, unifying, and worthy of our great republic.”
AP noted that “Many historians are alarmed by the revisionism.” The Organization of American Historians (OAH) called the White House report “part of an ongoing and multi-pronged assault by the Trump administration against accurate and evidence-based history in American public life.” The National Council on Public History (NCPH) declared, “In this moment, there is no greater threat to America’s story than those who would use their political power to repress it.”
Yale historian David Blight, the Democrats’ expert witness in a hearing yesterday, called the White House report “nothing less than a declaration of political war on the historian’s profession, as well as on the freedom and curiosity of anyone who reads or visits museums.” When asked how White House involvement differs from censorship, Blight said, “It is political censorship and their model may indeed be Joseph Goebbels’ committee on enlightenment, which is what the Nazis called their committee that tried to control museums.”
