The White House is ordering a wide-ranging review of the Smithsonian museums and exhibitions ahead of the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence, after US President Donald Trump earlier this year accused the institution of spreading “anti-American ideology.”
In a letter sent on Tuesday to Smithsonian Institution secretary Lonnie Bunch III, the White House laid out in detail the steps it expects the organization to take as part of the announced review.
The examination would look at all public-facing content, such as social media, exhibition text and educational materials, to “assess tone, historical framing and alignment with American ideals,” the letter said.
Photo: Reuters
“This initiative aims to ensure alignment with the President’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions,” it said.
Trump in March issued the “Restoring Truth and Sanity To American History” executive order, saying the Smithsonian had come under the influence of a “divisive, race-centered ideology.”
That raised concerns of political interference, as well as fears that his administration was undoing decades of social progress and undermining the acknowledgment of critical phases of US history.
The Smithsonian said it remained committed to “scholarly excellence, rigorous research and the accurate, factual presentation of history.”
The institution receives most of its budget from the US Congress, but is independent of the government in decisionmaking.
The museums should begin replacing “divisive or ideologically driven language with unifying, historically accurate, and constructive descriptions” where necessary within 120 days, the letter said.
Civil rights leaders have criticized the administration’s particular focus on the National Museum of African American History and Culture as efforts to minimize black Americans’ contributions to the country and to recast the obstacles they faced throughout history.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
RSS