The post rarely tries to editorialize or explain why specific exhibits are included, instead letting direct quotes from the Smithsonian’s website and archives do the work for it. This strategy is almost more chilling than the usual Trump babble; the White House is asking its constituents to reject art merely depicting refugees or LGBTQ+ history on principle.
Some pieces that have come under fire in this particular review include the “Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride flag,” Rigoberto A. González’s painting Refugees Crossing the Border Wall into South Texas, an exhibit imagining an underwater kingdom “populated by the children of pregnant women who had been thrown overboard or jumped into the ocean during the Middle Passage,” an entire “LGBTQ+ history” exhibit, a National Museum of the American Latino exhibit featuring Latinas with disabilities, a portrait of Anthony Fauci, an exhibit marking the 50th anniversary of Title IX, an exhibit quoting Angela Davis, an American History Museum display about Benjamin Franklin that “focuses almost solely on slavery” (the White House’s words), and many, many more.
This latest naked censorship attempt comes after Trump took to Truth Social earlier this week to complain that “The Museums throughout Washington, but all over the Country are, essentially, the last remaining segment of ‘WOKE.'” He continued: “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. 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. 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 president has been at this since at least July, when a Smithsonian display about presidential impeachments was mysteriously altered to remove any reference to his own. Of course, this whole saga is the exact type of history museums like the Smithsonian were created to preserve. If Trump doesn’t further dismantle the institution before he leaves office, all of it will make for a really fascinating exhibit one day.
