The White House increased its pressure on the Smithsonian on Thursday, calling out a list of exhibitions and materials mentioning race, slavery, transgender identity and immigration to bolster President Donald Trump’s ongoing criticism that the institution is too focused on divisive and negative aspects of American history.
In an official, unsigned article titled “President Trump Is Right About the Smithsonian,” the White House called out seven museums for their exhibits and messaging - including the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Museum of American History, the National Portrait Gallery and the National Museum of the American Latino.
Representatives for each of the museums named in the article did not respond or directed a request for comment to the central Smithsonian administration, whose spokesperson declined to comment.
“As President Trump promised, the Trump Administration is committed to rooting out Woke and divisive ideology in our government and institutions,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in an email. “Taxpayer money should not be used for things that pit Americans against one another. Our Smithsonian should exhibit history in an accurate, honest, and factual way.”
Among the targets of the White House’s list were two museums that have not yet broken ground on buildings - the National Museum of the American Latino and American Women’s History Museum - and works by individual artists.
“In a way I’m kind of honored to be included in this list of important exhibitions and art projects that shed light on many viewpoints and diverse realities that are part of American History,” said artist Hugo Crosthwaite in an email to The Post. Crosthwaite created a portrait, named by the White House, of former National Institutes of Health official Anthony S. Fauci, who “has made a significant impact on the wellness of this country,” he said.
Artist Rigoberto A. González, who had been spending the day painting when a friend texted him the link to the White House website, had similar sentiments about his work being scrutinized: “You know the saying that there’s only good publicity? I’m thinking that maybe somebody will want to buy a painting.”
At the same time, said González, “it reminded me right away of, when you read in our history, about ‘degenerate art’ that the Nazis targeted. I was like, ‘There it is: another sign of where they want to take the country.’”
González submitted a painting of a family crossing a southern U.S. border wall for the Smithsonian’s Outwin Boochever portrait competition. Though the White House website says the Portrait Gallery “features” his painting, which he based on his research at migrant respite centers in South Texas, he noted that it is not on display at the Smithsonian but is held in a private collection.
“It’s not promoting immigration,” he added. “It’s the reality of immigration - and the fact that when immigrants come here, they don’t always find this American Dream that they’re supposedly chasing.”
The White House’s list comes two days after Trump said he would send his attorneys through the museums, adding that the Smithsonian focused too much on “how bad Slavery was.”
In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Lindsey Halligan, the White House official charged with examining the Smithsonian, said she had walked through museums and reviewed information on slavery herself.
“The fact that … our country was involved in slavery is awful - no one thinks otherwise,” Halligan said. “But what I saw when I was going through the museums, personally, was an overemphasis on slavery, and I think there should be more of an overemphasis on how far we’ve come since slavery.”
Scholars this week challenged Trump’s framing of the Smithsonian’s work and decried his criticism as an effort to control history.
Samuel Redman, director of the public history program at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and author of “The Museum: A Short History of Crisis and Resilience,” told The Post on Wednesday that the president “doesn’t have the requisite legal or political authority to enact these changes unilaterally.”
He noted the Smithsonian has many forward-looking exhibits on subjects including American innovation, and added that because of its deliberate planning, the institution is not generally seen as “this cutting-edge space.”
Beth English, executive director of the Organization of American Historians, called Trump’s comments “executive overreach masquerading as patriotic renewal.”
Some repeat targets were mentioned in Thursday’s list. The White House again singled out “The Shape of Power,” a Smithsonian American Art Museum exhibition that explores how sculpture “has shaped and reflected” concepts of race in the U.S., and how it “has been a powerful tool in promoting scientific racism.” The show was mentioned in Trump’s executive order “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”
As part of the president’s effort to oust Portrait Gallery director Kim Sajet, the White House issued a list of 17 examples of the museum’s alleged partisanship. The commissioning of choreographer-in-residence Dana Tai Soon Burgess’s performance “El Muro” (The Wall) appeared on both that list and the new release. Burgess did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The White House announced a more aggressive review of Smithsonian materials last week. The institution is conducting its own internal review.
Other exhibitions and artifacts seem to have newly caught the White House’s attention. One of the listed exhibitions is a temporary, ground-floor show in the American History museum about the history of Title IX and women in sports. The White House took issue with its references to transgender athletes.
The document also criticized the National Museum of American History for mentioning Benjamin Franklin’s status as a enslaver in an exhibition about his scientific legacy, and for its inclusion of the Immokalee Statue of Liberty, a papier-mache statue holding a tomato instead of a torch, used in demonstrations by immigrant farmworkers with the message, “I, too, am America.”
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