{"id":2490388,"date":"2026-07-06T16:25:58","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T16:25:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2490388"},"modified":"2026-07-06T16:25:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T16:25:58","slug":"white-house-blasts-smithsonian-history-exhibits-for-radical-activism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/white-house-blasts-smithsonian-history-exhibits-for-radical-activism\/","title":{"rendered":"White House Blasts Smithsonian History Exhibits For ‘Radical’ Activism"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tThe Trump White House issued a report over the weekend blasting the Smithsonian<\/a>\u2018s National Museum of American History<\/a> for being captured by \u201cradical, activist ideology\u201d \u2014 claiming, among other things, that it\u2019s become \u201canti-white,\u201d pro-\u201cillegal alien\u201d and pro-transgender.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe museum \u2014 which features everything from the original Star Spangled Banner, first ladies\u2019 inaugural gowns and Abraham Lincoln\u2019s top hat \u2014 also includes a wing, Entertainment Nation, that features a gallery of pop culture artifacts.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile visitors to Entertainment Nation flock to Ruby\u2019s red slippers and Star Wars <\/em>droids, the White House report, titled Saving America\u2019s Story<\/a>, singled out the pop culture wing for how it presents aspects of showbiz history. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn criticizing the way that the museum depicts America\u2019s founders, the report cited a \u201cdidactic about the Broadway musical Hamilton<\/a><\/em> in NMAH\u2019s Entertainment Nation exhibit that simply called Alexander Hamilton an \u2018influential and flawed founding father\u2019 likely, in part, because he owned slaves while providing no information about his key roles in America\u2019s Founding and early development.\u201d What went unmentioned, the report noted, was that Hamilton was \u201ca vocal critic of slavery and helped found the anti-slavery New York Manumission Society in 1785.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tExhibit photos included in White House report claiming that the Smithsonian\u2019s Museum of American History has been captured by \u201cradical, activist ideology\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tScreenshot\/White House Report<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tThe Entertainment Nation exhibit does explain why it featured Hamilton<\/em>, noting that through \u201crap and hip-hop-and non-white casting\u2014Hamilton <\/em>made this history accessible and relatable to audiences of color and gave more people a sense of ownership of American history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe report also objected to other aspects of the Entertainment Nation wing, noting that visitors \u201clearn that P.T. Barnum\u2019s circus symbols reflect \u2018concerns about maintaining white supremacy,\u2019 that \u2018Ukeleles are both a product of U.S. imperialism and a potent symbol of Native Hawaiian resistance,\u2019 that \u2018Wild West shows turned the subjugation of Indigenous people into theater,\u2019 and that Mickey Mouse represents \u2018vestiges of longstanding traditions of blackface minstrelsy.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe report added, \u201cAt the same time, those visitors also learn about a bisexual blues singer, a lesbian actress, a sexually-liberated film star, an LGBTQ \u2018icon,\u2019 a lesbian TV star, a gay major league baseball player, and a queer women\u2019s soccer player, reflecting the NMAH Interpretative Plan\u2019s prime directive to, \u2018whatever the topic,\u2019 tie everything to \u2018the core issues of our time.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe report also criticized what it says is \u201csexually suggestive material and other material inappropriate for young children\u201d in and around the Entertainment Nation area, including video clips that depict drag queens and a magazine cover that featured a photo of \u201cnude young women.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe report also pointed to online exhibits, including a two-piece crotch harness that was part of an exhibit, \u201cIllegal to Be You: Gay History Beyond Stonewall.\u201d 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. <\/p>\n

\n\tA Smithsonian spokesperson said in a statement, \u201cFor more than 180 years, the Smithsonian has served the American public with nonpartisan and independent scholarship, and we remain committed to doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe report followed Trump\u2019s 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, \u201cHistorians 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the Smithsonian, which depends on public and private support, is set up a different way. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe leadership and governance of the Smithsonian is set up to reflect support across all branches of government. Lonnie Bunch has served as secretary since 2019, when he was elected by the Board of Regents in a unanimous vote.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Smithsonian\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source deadline.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Trump White House issued a report over the weekend blasting the Smithsonian\u2018s National Museum of American History for being captured by \u201cradical, activist ideology\u201d \u2014 claiming, among other things, that it\u2019s become \u201canti-white,\u201d pro-\u201cillegal alien\u201d and pro-transgender. The museum \u2014 which features everything from the original Star Spangled Banner, first ladies\u2019 inaugural gowns and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2490389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[22389,362933,351620,490413,444781],"class_list":["post-2490388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-donald-trump","tag-electionline","tag-hamilton","tag-national-museum-of-american-history","tag-smithsonian"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/White-House-Blasts-Smithsonian-History-Exhibits-For-Radical-Activism.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2490388"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2490390,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490388\/revisions\/2490390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2490389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2490388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2490388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2490388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}