Smithsonian review put elected officials over museum narratives about race and national history
Reporting and findings
- reported
PEN America documents the order-driven review of Smithsonian and National Park content involving slavery, Native history, race, gender, and LGBTQ subjects and analyzes it as government pressure to sanitize history; it is PEN America's characterization, not a judicial finding.
- PEN America: History, Sanitized, Coming to a National Park Near YouSmithsonian and National Park review chronology and examples of targeted subject matter
- documented
On 2025-03-27, Donald Trump directed the Vice President to pursue changes to Smithsonian exhibits, programs, and funding based on the order’s standards for American history and ideology.
Corrects claim:batch-200:smithsonian-history-control-2025- The White House: Restoring Truth and Sanity to American HistoryOperative text of the cited action
Summary and current status
The order assigned the vice president oversight of exhibits, programs, and appropriations based on ideological standards. The intervention reaches public history rather than correcting a documented accounting offense.
Institutional review and exhibit scrutiny proceeded; no cited court judgment resolved the order.
People and organizations
- Restoring Truth and Sanity to American Historyexecutive action under legal and impact review
- Donald J. Trumppresident who issued the action
Relationships in this file
- Donald J. Trumpordered Smithsonian content review throughRestoring Truth and Sanity to American History