MSNBC - As a political matter, it’s been a difficult year for the Smithsonian. In late March, for example, Donald Trump signed an executive order that directly took aim at the Smithsonian and its museums, directing officials to eliminate “improper, divisive, or anti-American” ideology from the institution. The same order accused the Biden administration of using the Smithsonian to advance what the incumbent president described as a “corrosive” ideology, among other things.
Trump went on to characterize the Smithsonian as an institution that was “once widely respected as a symbol of American excellence and a global icon of cultural achievement” — before it fell victim to a nefarious ideology that the Republican considers “divisive.”
All of this was ridiculous, but it was merely the first in a series of steps. A few months later, the president announced that he’d fired the director of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, despite questions about whether he had the legal authority to do so.
More recently, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History decided to alter an exhibit that referenced Trump’s impeachments — in ways that failed to fully reflect the truth — creating a brazen example of trying to rewrite history.
Late last week, the museum restored information about the incumbent president to a display on presidential impeachments, but the new version wasn’t necessarily improved: It made changes to the original and removed some details.
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