How will the Smithsonian be affected by Trump’s decree? : NPR

The Trump administration has evolved quickly to eliminate what it considers as an “awakened ideology” of the artistic and cultural institutions of the country.

Thursday, President Trump signed an executive decree which targets two beneficiaries of federal funds: the Smithsonian Institution, a vast collection of research centers, museums and galleries, including the Air & Space Museum and the American Art Museum; And the monuments and commemorative monuments supervised by the Interior Department.

What does the order say?

The order is called “restoring the truth and mental health to American history” and the White House says that the objective is “to revitalize key cultural institutions and to reverse the propagation of the ideology of the division”.

He says that the Smithsonian promotes “stories that depict American and Western values ​​as intrinsically harmful and oppressive”.

But Jim Grossman, the executive director of the American Historical Association, said: “He distorts the work of the Smithsonian, who is one of the major research institutions in the world. Arguing that the Smithsonian is somehow induced. It is simply not true.”

However, the order orders that the vice -president JD Vance – which is part of the Smithsonian board of directors – to eliminate “an inappropriate, inappropriate, or anti -American” ideology of museums, and to work with the Congress so as not to finance exhibitions or programs which “divide the Americans by race”.

He distinguishes the next museum in the history of American women, who does not yet have a physical building, and orders that he “does not recognize men as women”. This is how the Trump administration has referred to transgender women. An exhibition that the organized museum, which is currently at the National Museum of American History, includes a t-shirt of a trans and non-binary athlete.

The Executive Decree also directs the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees national parks and other public lands, to restore markers, statues and other monuments that have been “poorly deleted or modified in the past five years to perpetuate a false revision of history or badly minimize or blame certain figures or historical events”.

Five years ago, in 2020, the statues of the country were degraded or demolished in the context of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations. But national parks and historic sites across the country have also revised their messages to reflect a more complicated understanding of American history, which includes not only American achievements but also the belly of the country, such as the slavery of the founding fathers, the invisibility of LGBTQ people throughout history and the taking of Amerindian land.

What is possible for administration to do?

The Smithsonian is not a federal agency – it is a public -private partnership. But he receives federal funds, and his employees are a mixture of civil servants and people with “funding posts”, which are roles funded by sources that include commercial activities and subsidies.

Its director’s body is a council of regents, whose members include the vice-president, the chief judge of the United States, three senators, three representatives and nine citizens. In the decree, Trump said that vice-president JD Vance would work with the Congress to appoint citizens who were largely agree with the order.

It is not clear what power the administration currently has in the board of regents, but the order links future financing to compliance.

What is Smithsonian’s response?

The Smithsonian has not yet published a declaration.

But in response to an executive decree of January by President Trump, which prohibits organizations receiving federal funds for the exploitation of diversity, equity and inclusion programs, he closed his diversity office.