Trump clashes with the Smithsonian: Tracking MAGA’s remolding of arts and culture
President Trump in his first six weeks in office has made a number of moves to remake American arts and cultural institutions — particularly those in the nation’s capital — in the MAGA image.
His administration has cut funding for arts programs, installed the president as the head of the Kennedy Center and attempted to remove the head of one of the Smithsonian Institution’s museums.
Other controversies have not necessarily stemmed from direct action by the White House but reflect a culture in which some artists, curators and museum officials are wary of backlash from the administration.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History removed references to Trump’s first and second impeachments from an exhibit this month as part of an internal content review.
After the Post’s initial reporting was published, the Smithsonian said the museum would include information about the impeachments after its exhibits were fully updated.
Here are five clashes between Trump and various national arts institutions.
Executive order targets ‘divisive narratives’
An executive order signed by the president in March accused the Smithsonian of advancing “divisive, race-centered ideology” and outlined mechanisms for the White House to strip funding from offending exhibits and programs.
“Under this historical revision, our Nation’s unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed,” the order reads. “This shift has promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.”
The order called on Vice President Vance to ensure future congressional appropriations “prohibit expenditure on exhibits or programs that degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with Federal law and policy.”
Many programs and exhibits in the Smithsonian that might be implicated by the executive order remain up, but the order was, to many observers, a statement of the administration’s ideological intentions as it puts arts institutions under the microscope.
Trump installed as Kennedy Center head
Trump in February replaced members of the Kennedy Center’s board and installed himself as the president of the performing arts venue. The new board members include close confidants like Susie Wiles, his chief of staff, and Pam Bondi, the attorney general.
After a tour in March, Trump said the center was in “tremendous disrepair” and pledged to “fix it up.”
The center reportedly saw a significant decline in subscriptions in the following months, a report that the center has denied. The Washington Post also reported the venue was down more than $1.5 million in revenue.
Congressional Republicans have also proposed renaming parts of the Kennedy Center after the president or after first lady Melania Trump.
Portrait Gallery head resigns after Trump ‘firing’
In May, Trump declared that he had fired Kim Sajet, the head of the National Portrait Gallery, for being “highly partisan.”
It was not clear that he had the ability to fire Sajet, and the Smithsonian maintained that it had legal authority to make personnel decisions.
Two weeks later, Sajet stepped down anyway, writing that resigning was the “best way to serve the institution I hold so deeply in my heart.”
The Portrait Gallery came under fire again in late July after painter Amy Sherald pulled a show over concerns that she was being censored. Sherald claimed the museum had pushed her to swap out a painting depicting a transgender woman posing like the Statue of Liberty.
The Smithsonian maintained its staff had suggested a video portion of the exhibit to accompany the painting, as opposed to replacing it altogether.
Administration targets National Endowment for the Arts grants
Museums, arts groups and other local cultural groups across the country have reported having lost grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a normally independent federal agency that is the largest government arts funder in the country.
The administration’s proposed budget in May would cut funding from the agency altogether, alongside institutions like the U.S. Institute of Peace and the U.S. Agency for Global Media.
In March, before the grant cuts, a group of arts organizations sued the endowment over its implementation of a Trump executive order blocking funds from being used for promoting “gender ideology.”
White House requests Smithsonian budget cuts
The White House requested a 12 percent reduction in the Smithsonian’s budget in May, The Washington Post reported.
Trump’s budget proposal also does not include money for developing the National Museum of the American Latino, whose creation Trump signed off on in 2020 during his first term.
Congress, not the president, has control over the institution’s funding levels, and the White House’s proposed cuts prompted concern from some GOP lawmakers.
Still, congressional Republicans have been amenable to the broad strokes of many of the president’s budget requests, including the first spending rescissions package passed in decades that clawed back funding for public media and foreign aid.