Trump Is Right to Fight Wokeness at the Smithsonian

The White House announced plans last month to conduct an “internal review” of Smithsonian museums to determine whether they “reflect the unity, progress, and enduring values that define the American story.” A chorus of left-wing critics claimed that the Trump administration was trying to stifle free speech and whitewash history. New York Times culture reporter Robin Pogrebin, for example, characterized the efforts as part of “a wholesale attack on the arts” that could have “lasting, chilling effects,” as Trump attempts to “impose his vision of American history.”

In truth, it is the Left that has imposed its idiosyncratic vision of American history on the Smithsonian museums. Rather than a misguided attempt to control these museums, the Trump administration’s review is a necessary step to reclaim for the American people institutions that have long been controlled by the Left.

Consider, for example, one of the Smithsonian’s recent depictions of “American history.” In 2020, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History opened an exhibit called Girlhood (It’s Complicated). Per its chief curator, this 5,000-square-foot display partially reflects the curatorial team’s thoughts “about how intersex and transgender stories illuminate and complicate ideas about girlhood and what it means to grow up female in the United States.”