His plans spark concerns over censorship and authoritarian control of U.S. history.

U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered an ideological review of museums to ensure everything within them fits his vision of Americanism, free of what he calls “woke” content.

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The Smithsonian Institution and other museums not only preserve paintings and artifacts but also construct narratives about history. Through their exhibitions, they create a collective consciousness that, like a funnel, gathers and projects the most significant events of the past and present.

Trump aims to adapt that narrative to the conservative vision of the MAGA movement, which promotes a nationalist and traditionalist storyline, rejects any critical approach to American society, and minimizes the voices of minorities.

“Among MAGA supporters, there’s a fantasy about an American past where everything worked and people were proud of their nation. I think Trump draws on his youth as a reference point, but if so, it shows he was a poor student of history. That was an era of great social upheaval. The current administration probably doesn’t see it that way. They want to shore up a ‘clean,’ sugarcoated version of national history,” said historian William Deverell.

On Aug. 19, the U.S. President again demonstrated his desire to control the narrative about American history told by federally funded institutions.

“The Museums throughout Washington, but all over the country are, essentially, the last remaining segment of WOKE. The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our country is, how bad slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been – Nothing about success, nothing about brightness, nothing about the future,” Trump posted on his social network.

“We are not going to allow this to happen, and I have instructed my attorneys to go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with colleges and universities where tremendous progress has been made. This country cannot be WOKE, because WOKE IS BROKE. We have the HOTTEST country in the world, and we want people to talk about it, including in our museums,” he added.

A few days earlier, the White House sent a letter to the Smithsonian’s director informing him that it will conduct “a comprehensive internal review” of eight of its galleries. In the letter, the Trump administration explained that authorities seek to celebrate “American exceptionalism” and remove “divisive or partisan narratives.”

The Smithsonian defended its commitment to “scholarly excellence, rigorous research, and the accurate, objective presentation of history,” though it said it would cooperate with the White House.

“That’s typical of an authoritarian regime. From the Nazis to Franco in Spain, everyone has wanted to control the history that tells history,” said Scott Manning, a humanities professor at Syracuse University in New York.

“For a long time, we have considered museums centers of information where we expect impartiality. But we are entering an era in which even national museums, like the Smithsonian, will now have a partisan figure imposed on them instead of pursuing a balanced approach to history,” he added.

More than 60% of Smithsonian funding depends on Congress and federal sources. That gives Trump leverage, and he has already threatened to cut off funds. In his message, the MAGA leader lamented that there is “nothing about success” or “anything positive” in U.S. history—an observation that clearly reflects the subjective weight of both concepts.

The impact of this subtle form of censorship will also be felt in other institutions. The National Museum of American History displays the Greensboro lunch counter, where young Black students launched the fight against segregation. But celebrating and remembering the end of a more racist society than today’s does not appear “positive enough” for the Republican leader.

The same is true at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which houses the original manuscript of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Or at the National Portrait Gallery, which had planned to host an exhibition by artist Amy Sherald, Michelle Obama’s portraitist. She canceled the show after being warned that one of her works—depicting a trans woman as the Statue of Liberty—might offend Trump. In May, the Republican leader fired the director of that museum.

The process mirrors what he did with universities, where he suspended visas for students at some of the world’s most prestigious institutions, solely to silence pro-Palestinian protests. Both cases reflect the same intention: to suppress everything that falls outside the MAGA reality.

Recently, the White House newsletter published an article titled “President Trump Is Right About the Smithsonian,” which lists museums and artworks that do not sufficiently reflect the supposedly shared values of American society.

Among the artworks with objectionable content is a 2020 painting by Rigoberto Gonzalez, titled “Refugees Crossing the Border Wall into South Texas,” which was a competition finalist for The National Portrait Gallery in 2022, as reported by NPR.

“It depicts an immigrant family descending a ladder propped up at the U.S.-Mexico border wall. The mother holds a baby, and next to her is the father and their other son, who step onto an American landscape filled with ‘dangers they encounter now that they’ve arrived in the United States,’ Gonzalez says: a discarded fast food container symbolizing ‘an overindulgent American diet,’ a Victoria’s Secret ad representing ‘oversexualized consumerism,’ a crumpled iPhone case that depicts ‘social media addiction’,” the independent outlet added.

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Sources: EFE – NPR

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