White House announces more aggressive review of Smithsonian museums

[Rawley]

I look forward to seeing the new guidelines regarding slavery exhibits, Jim Crow exhibits, Native Americans, and Irish/Chinese immigrants. What think you USMB? Will we soon see an exhibit of Lincoln saying the CSA was right?

I certainly hope he will eliminate any exhibit featuring a darkie.

 

[Zincwarrior]

I certainly hope he will eliminate any exhibit featuring a darkie.

Like Ben Franklin, you don't like swarthy Germans?

 

[martybegan]

It was one of his speeches, remember.

And he mis-spoke, but keep harping on it like it means anything.

 

[WelfareQueen]

Cool. Now tell us about the Civil War, the Civil Rights movement, Trail of Tears, fight for women's equality and right to vote, fight of the working and middle class.

You have to show everything.

Why not? All of those stories ultimately ended positively. Talking about the struggle is our history. How the struggle was eventually resolved is also our story. Civil Rights, Women's suffrage, workers' rights, etc. As I said, building a more perfect Union. No Country has done it better.

 

[Zincwarrior]

Why not? All of those stories ultimately ended positively.

The Trail of Tears ended positively?

 

[Zincwarrior]

Why not? All of those stories ultimately ended positively. Talking about the struggle is our history. How the struggle was eventually resolved is also our story. Civil Rights, Women's suffrage, workers' rights, etc. As I said, building a more perfect Union. No Country has done it better.

We actually agree on the rest of your thread. I want history covered, warts and all, not Trump Approved history.

 

[pknopp]

Why not? All of those stories ultimately ended positively. Talking about the struggle is our history. How the struggle was eventually resolved is also our story. Civil Rights, Women's suffrage, workers' rights, etc. As I said, building a more perfect Union. No Country has done it better.

We have MAGA arguing to remove women's rights. The right of the worker to unionize etc.

 

[Mashmont]

I look forward to seeing the new guidelines regarding slavery exhibits, Jim Crow exhibits, Native Americans, and Irish/Chinese immigrants. What think you USMB? Will we soon see an exhibit of Lincoln saying the CSA was right?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/2025/08/12/white-house-review-smithsonian-institution/

White House announces more aggressive review of Smithsonian museums​

In a letter, White House officials said they would review the Smithsonian’s exhibition text, curation, exhibition planning and collections, starting with eight museums.

The White House will launch a sweeping review of Smithsonian exhibitions, collections and operations ahead of America’s 250th-birthday celebrations next year — the first time the Trump administration has detailed steps to scrutinize the institution, which officials say should reflect the president’s call to restore “truth and sanity” to American history.



The vetting process would include reviewing public-facing and online content, curatorial processes and guidelines, exhibition planning and collection use, according to a letter sent to Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III on Tuesday and signed by White House senior associate Lindsey Halligan, Domestic Policy Council Director Vince Hale and White House Office of Management and Budget chief Russell Vought.
firmed the plan, which was posted on the White House website Tuesday and first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The letter states that the initial review will focus on eight museums: the National Museum of American History, the National Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Museum of the American Indian, the National Air and Space Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

To begin the process, officials requested that the museums provide information within 30 days concerning 250th-anniversary programming, current and future exhibition content, and other material.

The whole so-called diversity initiative is nothing more than the Marxist agenda of dividing Americans, of making people see themselves as something other than Americans. Decades ago, the objective was to assimiliate, to be part of a large group called Americans. Marxists want to undermine that, to make it easier to take us over.

Trump is 100% right to undo all that. The reasons I stated should be repeated and shouted for all Americans to see.

 

[Zincwarrior]

And he mis-spoke, but keep harping on it like it means anything.

It was a major speech HE WAS READING OFF THE TELEPROMPTOR.

 

[JLW]

No surprise to see Trump take another page out of the Stalin playbook.

Purge anything and everything that does not bow down to the leader or does not comport to their "official" history.

Stalin's impact on museums in the Soviet Union

Stalin's reign had a profound and multifaceted impact on museums within the Soviet Union, fundamentally transforming their purpose and content:

• Propaganda and control: Under Stalin, museums became instruments of state propaganda, designed to disseminate the Marxist worldview and support socialist construction. Exhibits were carefully curated to glorify Stalin, highlight the achievements of the Soviet system, and reinforce loyalty to the regime.
• Reinterpretation of history: Museums actively reinterpreted history to align with the official narrative, minimizing or omitting events and figures deemed "unsuitable" for public consumption. This included downplaying the atrocities committed under Stalin's rule and suppressing discussions of the Holocaust.
• Shift towards didactic displays: Museums moved away from displaying artworks as mere objects of aesthetic appreciation and instead focused on showcasing them as examples of social processes, accompanied by extensive textual commentaries and didactic labels to guide interpretation, according to Oxford Academic.
• Nationalization and redistribution of cultural heritage: Following the October Revolution, art collections from the court, nobility, bourgeoisie, and the church were confiscated and added to state museum funds. These collections were then categorized, researched, and redistributed among existing and newly established Soviet art museums.
• Selling cultural heritage for economic gain: To finance the country's industrialization, the Soviet government sold cultural heritage abroad, including masterpieces from the Hermitage and other national collections, according to the Wilson Center. These sales sparked controversy and legal disputes with Russian émigrés, and remain a politically and legally charged issue today.

 

[WelfareQueen]

We actually agree on the rest of your thread. I want history covered, warts and all, not Trump Approved history.

Balance is the key, which is what Trump wants. Tell the whole story. The far Left hates America and wants to destroy it and all the traditional values that made this Country (Hard Work, Self-Determination, Freedom, Expansion of Personal Freedoms and Rights) I would call the Woke Historical perspective of history as self-loathing and self-flagellation. It is not history, it is indoctrination.

The sins of the past are fine to talk about, as long as how those sins were atoned for and corrected is talked about as well. That is our story.

 

[drudge X]

This reminds me of when the Taliban took over in Afghanistan and they would destroy artifacts they didnt like.

I'll bet you support leftists destroying statues they don't like.

 

[pknopp]

I'll bet you support leftists destroying statues they don't like.

Already addressed.

 

[drudge X]

Already addressed.

Great. Did you call out those who complain about this hypocrites? Trump didn't just do this out on a whim. Your side of worshipping St. Floyd at the altar caused this mess.

 

[WelfareQueen]

I'll bet you support leftists destroying statues they don't like.

Yeah, it's funny Dims are upset at Trump but they tear down statutes and erase history they don't like all the time. Tell me again who the Fascists are?

 

[Zincwarrior]

No surprise to see Trump take another page out of the Stalin playbook.

Purge anything and everything that does not bow down to the leader or does not comport to their "official" history.

Stalin's impact on museums in the Soviet Union

Stalin's reign had a profound and multifaceted impact on museums within the Soviet Union, fundamentally transforming their purpose and content:

• Propaganda and control: Under Stalin, museums became instruments of state propaganda, designed to disseminate the Marxist worldview and support socialist construction. Exhibits were carefully curated to glorify Stalin, highlight the achievements of the Soviet system, and reinforce loyalty to the regime.
• Reinterpretation of history: Museums actively reinterpreted history to align with the official narrative, minimizing or omitting events and figures deemed "unsuitable" for public consumption. This included downplaying the atrocities committed under Stalin's rule and suppressing discussions of the Holocaust.
• Shift towards didactic displays: Museums moved away from displaying artworks as mere objects of aesthetic appreciation and instead focused on showcasing them as examples of social processes, accompanied by extensive textual commentaries and didactic labels to guide interpretation, according to Oxford Academic.
• Nationalization and redistribution of cultural heritage: Following the October Revolution, art collections from the court, nobility, bourgeoisie, and the church were confiscated and added to state museum funds. These collections were then categorized, researched, and redistributed among existing and newly established Soviet art museums.
• Selling cultural heritage for economic gain: To finance the country's industrialization, the Soviet government sold cultural heritage abroad, including masterpieces from the Hermitage and other national collections, according to the Wilson Center. These sales sparked controversy and legal disputes with Russian émigrés, and remain a politically and legally charged issue today.

This is my fear.

 

[pknopp]

Great. Did you call out those who complain about this hypocrites? Trump didn't just do this out on a whim. Your side of worshipping St. Floyd at the altar caused this mess.

Your side has the Floyd posters on their wall.

 

[drudge X]

Yeah, it's funny Dims are upset at Trump but they tear down statutes and erase history they don't like all the time. Tell me agian who the Fascists are?

After news that Ukraine was defending the capital, leftist made a comparison.

At least Ukrainians are defending their capital unlike Trump supporters attacking the capital.

I came back with at least Ukrainians are preserving their statues and arts unlike Democrats.

The person who I was discussing this with shut up immediately.

 

[Superbadbrutha]

It's well past time to remove all the progressive self loathing that has been introduced to these things.

In other words it's time to hide America's true history and teach His-story. We are still learning the evils that were hidden during slavery and Jim Crow.

 

[Superbadbrutha]

They should be places that celebrate America.....Leave the unseemly "warts" to self-loathing "historians".

In other words show the good and hide the bad.