Annoyed by the Smithsonian but powerless to do anything about it, Donald Trump has decided to kick the world’s largest museum off the sidewalk. In executive order published this afternoon, the president ordered the Department of the Interior to place signs outside the National Museum of American History warning passersby of “ideological arrest” and describing the recent and quickly contested results of his administration. report at the museum. The order comes a few days after the director of the museum, Anthea Hartig provoked by members of parliament on Capitol Hill.
The warnings, the order says, will direct visitors to “sites and resources for accurate information” about American history and will inform them that exhibits “should be renovated based on the findings of the Report.” It asserts that “the current leadership of the Smithsonian Institution and Museum cannot be trusted to tell America’s story with honesty and appreciation.” After deciding, perhaps, that the museum 250 item display “Examining the values of the Declaration of Independence” was not enough, Trump also ordered the Department of the Interior to put up his own temporary display that “will properly honor the 56 signatories” of the document.
For the White House, the order was perhaps intended to increase its campaign of public pressure on the Smithsonian, which began with an executive order last spring seeking to remove the “ideologically inappropriate” institution and restore it “to its rightful place as a symbol of American inspiration and greatness.” In short, Trump feels that museums are too negative about the country’s history and should be more patriotic, and the Smithsonian says that its museums can be both celebratory and presenting complex stories at the same time. Instead, the call to put trigger warnings outside the museum shows the limitations of the Trump administration’s authority in this event, as well as the weakness in his campaign to take control of the American story.
The Smithsonian it takes a strange place as a public-private partnership and an “independent federal trust facility” of the US government. To some extent, the institution is funded by the federal government, it is managed by a board of representatives, which does not have presidential appointees and cannot be purged like a cabinet board. Kennedy Center was. Although in some specific cases the Smithsonian has been treated as part of the executive branch and in others it has not, the institution is not an executive agency and is not managed by the president like the National Park Service (NPS is managed by the Department of the Interior). That means the Smithsonian is also immune to the kind of mandated historic scrubbing that NPS leadership has implemented at historic sites across the country.
Trump is nominating Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum in this new order because he cannot formally nominate Hartig, nor can he nominate Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch, who reports to the board of regents. Those signs will go on NPS-managed trails and paths because that’s where the White House can say.
The White House appears to be even aware of these limitations in the executive order, asking the heads of the Department of the Interior, the Office of Management and Budget, and the General Services Administration, as well as the assistant to the president for domestic policy “to identify and use any and all authority available to promote the policy of this order.” This includes “any means available to encourage remediation of the issues identified in the Report.” The mention of the OMB appears to be in line with previous threats that the White House has made about depending on funds distributed by the Smithsonian following Trump’s vision, which would likely be illegal.
In its July 4 report on the museum of American history, the White House said, in essence, that the museum has been politicized and that it “no longer treats America’s story as a shared national heritage to be taught or celebrated, but as a political tool to divide, demoralize, and discourage our citizens.” It criticizes what it calls “anti-White” advocacy and takes particular aim at the museum’s representation of transgender Americans and undocumented immigrants, as well as exhibits featuring Filipino and Mexican Americans, describing as activism what many may see as a misrepresentation of people who exist in this country. The report frequently mentions museum workers by name, and Hartig appears in more than a dozen photographs throughout the document. Speaking at a congressional hearing this week, Representative Melanie Stansbury, Democrat of New Mexico, called it a “political witch hunt.”
During the dizzying sessions, Hartig tried to defend his work and that of his colleagues. He told MPs that the museum is impartial, and that it uses “historical evidence” and “opposing viewpoints” and accepts “sustainable debates.” He said the museum’s goal is to “preserve and document the evidence of American life in all its breadth, so that the public can encounter the past and draw their own conclusions,” and that telling the full story of history “is a form of honor for the American people.” None of this, of course, stopped the accusations of activism or the witness of the GOP and not even one congressman to want to clean up the leadership of the institution. The hearing was a theater. Symptoms too.
A turf war of sorts has taken place on the National Mall this summer. America’s Greatest State Fairsigns emblazoned with Trump’s slogan “We’re Making DC Safe and Beautiful,” and The once troubled Reflection Pool-the president’s hand has been everywhere in America’s backyard. Still, these incoming signals will signal a new kind of external hostility, falling somewhere close to putting Trump’s name on the Kennedy Center. Publicly targeting America’s beloved institution could risk doing what Trump accuses the Smithsonian of in the report: divisive.
But there is something that the president, apparently, has not considered. Trump and his cronies like to talk about “freedom-loving” Americans, and those freedom-loving Americans really don’t like being told what to do. Some of them may even see these signs outside the museum and have more reason to go inside.
