Washington (AFP) – US President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to remove “improper ideology” from the famed Smithsonian Museums — and the National Zoo — expanding his conservative clampdown on cultural institutions. Trump, who has sought to root out what he called “woke” culture since returning to power in January, accused the Smithsonian of trying to rewrite American history on issues of race and gender. His order puts hardline Vice President JD Vance in charge of efforts to carry out the order at the Smithsonian’s museums, education, and research centers. Trump said this should include a drive to “remove improper ideology from such properties.”
The Smithsonian operates 21 internationally renowned museums and galleries, mainly in and around Washington, dedicated to art, science, space, and American history. They include the National Zoo in the US capital, which recently welcomed two giant pandas from China, debuting them to the public just days after Trump’s inauguration for a second term. The presidential order — titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” — targeted a number of examples of what it also called “corrosive ideology.” It said the National Museum of African American History and Culture, one of the newest Smithsonian additions, had described hard work and the nuclear family as “aspects of ‘White Culture.'”
Trump also targeted what he said was a plan by the as-yet-unopened American Women’s History Museum for “celebrating the exploits of male athletes participating in women’s sports.” There was no immediate reaction from the Smithsonian.
– ‘Safe and beautiful’ –
The Smithsonian Institute was founded in the mid-19th century with a donation from a deceased and childless British chemist, James Smithson, who asked in his will for his wealth to be used to create an educational institution in the then-young United States — a country he had never set foot in. Trump’s wide-ranging 21st-century effort to reshape the US government has increasingly extended to cultural issues, where he is seeking to stamp his conservative mark.
The 78-year-old Republican recently took over the chairmanship of the Kennedy Center in Washington, a famed arts venue, after complaining that it was too liberal. The president has also eyed reforms in the governance of the US capital city, which he has repeatedly complained of having high crime and unsightly nuisances such as graffiti.
In a separate order on Thursday titled “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful,” Trump directed the creation of an inter-agency task force to increase immigration enforcement and other law enforcement priorities. It also calls for the development of a “coordinated beautification plan” for the city. “We will take over our horribly run Washington, DC, and clean up, renovate, and rebuild our capital so that it is no longer a nightmare of murder and crime,” Trump said on the campaign trail last year — a message reposted Thursday on X by the White House.
Washington’s approximately 700,000 residents are overwhelmingly Democrats, with the party’s candidate Kamala Harris winning over 90 percent of the vote last November. The city has a unique status in the country as it is not a part of any state. It has no voting representation in Congress — despite having a population larger than two states. Though the city now runs its own affairs, Congress — currently controlled by Republicans — retains the ability to take back control, something Trump has repeatedly threatened to do. With that backdrop, city authorities have sought to develop a conciliatory relationship with the president, quickly fulfilling his requests, such as removing some homeless encampments and a “Black Lives Matter” mural.
© 2024 AFP
