Earlier this month, the White House released a 162-page report on the leftist ideological capture of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, as part of President Donald Trump's "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History" initiative. The report noted exhibits including pages from a 6-year-old girl's diary in which she prays "every night for my penis to grow," an argument that Mickey Mouse represented "vestiges of longstanding traditions of blackface minstrelsy," and a claim that Benjamin Franklin conducted electric shock experiments on slaves.
Earlier this week, Congress heard from the director of the Museum of American History, Anthea M. Hartig, who agreed with Rep. Brandon Gill that politeness is important—even though a notorious Smithsonian exhibit had declared politeness a pillar of white supremacy culture.
The New York Times has a new piece on Trump's escalation against the Smithsonian, ordering warning signs put up outside sketchy exhibits.
Trump massively escalates against the Smithsonian > https://t.co/7VdlmoGOdq
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) July 24, 2026
Robin Pogrebin and Zachary Small report:
President Trump on Friday ordered warning signs and exhibits installed outside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History to alert the public that the museum does not, in his view, accurately reflect American history.
The unusual directive, made through an executive order, was a considerable escalation of the president’s dispute with the Smithsonian and its history museum, which was the subject of a recent 162-page report. The report accused the museum’s director, Anthea M. Hartig, of “radical activist ideology” and the museum of undermining “faith in American institutions.”
The order went so far as to suggest that the signage inform potential museum visitors of locations where American history is better presented. The administration did not explain where the public would be redirected.
…
Friday’s executive order also ordered several government officials to “restore trust in the Smithsonian Institution” and to seek its compliance with the White House findings, which asserted that the museum had become a tool of political activism and had not done enough to celebrate the achievements of the nation’s founders on the country’s 250th anniversary year.
So? A committee recommended putting warning signs in front of problematic D.C. landmarks like the Jefferson Memorial and the Washington Monument to make sure visitors were aware that both were slave owners.
The Smithsonian said that Benjamin Franklin used electroshock on slaves. Burn it to the ground. pic.twitter.com/IHAEzABP85
— StormyT 🌿 (@OutLikeA_Lamb) July 25, 2026
Gut it and hang its corpse from the Washington Monument.https://t.co/ekAaSYY5KX
— Christopher Walker (@chriswalker_12) July 25, 2026
The amount of historical misinformation being spread and the blatant Marxist influence is unbelievable. It’s a disgrace to our country that such people are in charge of running the museums.
— GenXer (@Texas68Landon) July 25, 2026
Smithsonian is woke leftist trash and it's supposed to be an American museum. It hates America.
— Rob Roskowiak (@nILFeed) July 24, 2026
Is the signage inaccurate, or in the case of Ben Franklin electrocuting slaves, downright false? Where is your story on why the Smithsonian felt so comfortable including ahistorical nonsense in the first place?
— butnotthearmadillo (@armadillolov) July 25, 2026
About damn time. The Smithsonian has abandoned its mission to teach and preserve history in favor of become Social Justice Warriors. The entire leadership needs to go.
— Lucy Stone (@lucystone1871) July 25, 2026
It’s a start, much work left to be done. Every last Marxist must be driven from public life.
— Huell Bowser (@BowserHuell) July 25, 2026
Good. They’ve politicized the organization to the point of near uselessness.
— Your Mom Is A Bot (@wsliger) July 25, 2026
Against its woke displays. Even you know they're woke, Maggie.
— AAE (@AAC0519) July 25, 2026
Of course, she does. And that's the way she likes it. Imagine a Museum of American History with only negative things to say about American history on the country's 250th birthday. If Trump were truly escalating, he'd be doing a lot more than putting up signs—he'd be cleaning house.
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