The Trump White House issued a report over the weekend blasting the Smithsonian‘s National Museum of American History for being captured by “radical, activist ideology” — claiming, among other things, that it’s become “anti-white,” pro-“illegal alien” and pro-transgender.
The museum — which features everything from the original Star Spangled Banner, first ladies inaugural gowns and Abraham Lincoln’s top hat — also includes a wing, Entertainment Nation, that features a gallery of pop culture artifacts.
While visitors to Entertainment Nation flock to Ruby’s red slippers and Star Wars droids, the White House report, titled Saving America’s Story, singled out the pop culture wing for how it presents aspects of showbiz history.
In criticizing the way that the museum depicts America’s founders, the report cited a “didactic about the Broadway musical Hamilton in NMAH’s Entertainment Nation exhibit that simply called Alexander Hamilton an ‘influential and flawed founding father’ likely, in part, because he owned slaves while providing no information about his key roles in America’s Founding and early development.” What went unmentioned, the report noted, was that Hamilton was “a vocal critic of slavery and helped found the anti-slavery New York Manumission Society in 1785.”
The Entertainment Nation exhibit does explain why it featured Hamilton, noting that through “rap and hip-hop-and non-white casting—Hamilton made this history accessible and relatable to audiences of color and gave more people a sense of ownership of American history.”
The report also objected to other aspects of the Entertainment Nation wing, noting that visitors “learn that P.T. Barnum’s circus symbols reflect ‘concerns about maintaining white supremacy,’ that ‘Ukeleles are both a product of U.S. imperialism and a potent symbol of Native Hawaiian resistance,’ that ‘Wild West shows turned the subjugation of Indigenous people into theater,’ and that Mickey Mouse represents ‘vestiges of longstanding traditions of blackface minstrelsy.'”
The report added, “At the same time, those visitors also learn about a bisexual blues singer, a lesbian actress, a sexually-liberated film star, an LGBTQ ‘icon,’ a lesbian TV star, a gay major league baseball player, and a queer women’s soccer player, reflecting the NMAH Interpretative Plan’s prime directive to, ‘whatever the topic,’ tie everything to ‘the core issues of our time.” Those core issues, per the report, include race and identity, gender and sexuality, environmental change, immigration and migrations, economic inequality, technological change and nationalism and globalism.
The report also criticized what it says is “sexually suggestive material and other material inappropriate for young children” in and around the Entertainment Nation area, including video clips that depict drag queens and a magazine cover that featured a photo of “nude young women.” That latter was a 2003 Entertainment Weekly cover of the Dixie Chicks, then the source of controversy for speaking out against the war in Iraq.
The report also pointed to online exhibits, including a two-piece crotch harness that was part of an exhibit, “Illegal to Be You: Gay History Beyond Stonewall.” Another online exhibit, the report noted, cited a Girl Germs magazine cover featuring two partially nude women embracing. It is part of a display in a Music HerStory online exhibit.
A Smithsonian spokesperson said in a statement, “For more than 180 years, the Smithsonian has served the American public with nonpartisan and independent scholarship, and we remain committed to doing so.”
The report followed Trump’s executive order from last year, Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History, which raised alarms among historians that the administration would attempt a takeover of the Smithsonian to present a simplified version of history. The American Historical Association issued a statement at the time, writing, “Historians practice our craft with integrity. Political interference into professional curatorial practices and museum and educational content places at risk the integrity and accuracy of historical interpretation and stands to erode public trust in our shared institutions.”
In the first few weeks of his second term, Trump engineered a takeover of the Kennedy Center, ousting board members appointed by his predecessors, and ensuring that he would be appointed its chairman.
But the Smithsonian, which depends on public and private support, is set up a different way.
The leadership of the Smithsonian is set up to reflect support across all branches of government. The Smithsonian’s chancellor is Chief Justice John Roberts, who is also an ex officio member of the Board of Regents, along with Vice President JD Vance. The Board of Regents also includes three senators appointed by the president pro tem of the Senate, and three by the speaker of the House, along with nine regents from the general public. One member is Michael Lynton, the chairman of Snap Inc. and former CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, whose term expires later this year.
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