The US President has authorized an executive order with the aim of bringing “truth and sanity” back to the way American history is represented.
Since assuming office as the 47th President of the United States, Trump has issued an extraordinary number of executive orders, exceeding 100 at this point.
Recently, the President signed an executive order addressing the management of US elections, a move that has drawn considerable criticism.
Additionally, he has issued orders to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, dismantle the Department of Education, and one that could significantly affect medical patients.
On March 27, he introduced another order calling for the restoration of “Federal parks, monuments, memorials, statues, markers” and mandating that the Smithsonian “celebrates American history” and “greatness”.
According to the White House website, this order instructs Vice President JD Vance, who serves as a member of the Smithsonian Board of Regents, to work towards eliminating any “improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology” from the Smithsonian, which is a network of museums, educational, and research institutions, as well as the National Zoo.
The order further requires collaboration with Congress to ensure that “future Smithsonian appropriations prohibit funding for exhibits or programs that denigrate shared American values, create racial division, or advocate ideologies at odds with Federal law” and to “celebrate women’s achievements in the American Women’s History Museum without recognizing men as women”.
Beyond museums, the order also instructs the “Secretary of the Interior” to restore any Federal landmarks that have been altered or removed over the past five years in a way that misrepresents history or unfairly criticizes certain figures or events.
But what is the reason behind targeting the Smithsonian Institution?
Under the section titled “Combating Corrosive Ideology,” the order claims that the administration of former US President Joe Biden promoted a divisive ideology that reinterpreted America’s promotion of liberty as fundamentally flawed, affecting respected institutions like the Smithsonian and national parks with misleading narratives.
Although the Smithsonian was “once revered throughout the world as a symbol of American excellence,” it is now accused of promoting divisive ideologies that criticize American and Western values.
The order highlights several exhibitions or instances of this alleged divisive ideology, such as an exhibit at the American Art Museum that “addresses how ‘sculpture has been a powerful tool in promoting scientific racism'” and argues that the United States has “used race to establish and maintain systems of power, privilege, and disenfranchisement,” as well as the American Women’s History Museum’s plans to recognize male athletes in women’s sports.
The executive order demonstrates Trump’s commitment to “celebrating American greatness” and fostering “national pride,” with the intent of ensuring that American history is “celebrated accurately, fairly, and with pride,” while honoring the nation’s progress, liberty, and ingenuity.