President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered that “improper, divisive or anti-American ideology” be removed from the Smithsonian Institution, the vast museum and research complex that is a premier exhibition space for US history and culture.
The Republican president, in an executive order, directed that Vice President JD Vance undertake the action.
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The order, titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” is vague about what the president views as anti-American ideology. But it suggests Trump is seeking to purge elements of what conservatives view as a revisionist history of the United States that places systemic racism at the heart of its narrative.
The order singles out the National Museum of African American History and Culture as problematic, claiming that it informs visitors that “hard work,” “individualism” and “the nuclear family” are aspects of “White culture.”
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The Smithsonian spans 21 museums, most of them in the nation’s capital lining the mall from the U.S. Capitol to the Washington Monument, and including the National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of American History and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
The Smithsonian, whose website says it is the world’s largest museum, education and research complex, also encompasses 14 education and research centers, and the National Zoo.
The order is in line with the Trump administration’s efforts to do away with diversity and inclusion programs in government, universities and corporations.
Vance is a member of the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents.
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Trump earlier this year made himself chairman of the Kennedy Center in Washington, indicating that he wants to leave his mark on US arts and culture as part of his presidency.
Trump has been a strident critic of renaming or removing Confederate statues and monuments. Earlier this year, he restored two US Army bases to their former names of Fort Benning and Fort Bragg despite a federal law that prohibits honoring generals who fought for the South during the Civil War. The administration says the names honor different individuals, all former soldiers.
In 2017, Trump defended white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia, who protested the city’s decision to remove a statue of the confederate commander Robert E. Lee. At the time, he said there were “very fine people of both sides” of the fight, sparking widespread outrage.
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