Trump Orders Smithsonian to Drop “Divisive” Race and Gender Narratives: Cultural Institutions Under Scrutiny:

Assigning full responsibilities to the White House as regards race and gender issues, President Trump’s administration has sought to enforce their deeper understanding of these complex issues by signing a proclamation instructing the Smithsonian Institution to eliminate any mention of “improper ideology” from their programs and exhibitions.

The proclamation directed the Smithsonian, which includes a collection of museums and research facilities not under direct federal administration, to discard any “ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history” which was coined to ideologically center around contemporary societal affairs.

The document states, “For the last several decades, the United States has been perceived to be a global leader in providing quality education and cultural facilities with world-renowned institutes, but unfortunately the Smithsonian Institution has not been spared the impact of race-based harmful policies.”

During his second term, Trump has gone after DEI policies within other organizations and even at the government level, including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. According to Trump and his supporters, the Smithsonian Institutions “advance stories that misrepresent America and the West as abusive and antipathetic.”

The order puts Vice President JD Vance, the OMB, and Congress in charge of ensuring that none of the future activities “sabotage the core American values” or “fragment America by ethnicity.” It also orders the review of signs at Interior Department monuments, memorials, and other sites to ensure that there is no “partisan” components, as “signs” are said to be.

Around 67 percent of Smithsonian’s annual budget comes from Congress, while the remainder comes from contributions, paid memberships, and gift shop sales.

These changes follow years of contemplation among federal officials about how to frame and what to include or exclude in America’s story.

Take for instance California's Muir Woods National Monument where gigantic redwoods stand to the north of the Golden Gate Bridge, and park rangers put additional context to the history of the site by adding yellow sticky notes in recent years. The notes became later incorporated into new signs which included references to Native Americans as well as the troubling attitudes that some white American leaders held towards the park's history.

"Apart from other things, Muir Woods has a website that states, 'The part of it which addresses The National Park Service’s purpose is preserving history … It is our responsibility to ensure history is told with such depth.'"