Recently President Donald Trump signed an executive order known as Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History. In this order, he claimed that the Smithsonian Institution has succumbed to “diverse, race-centered ideology” that is used to “portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.” In the executive order, it was decreed that the Smithsonian Institution is to take down anything that is considered “improper ideology.”
The vice president, along with the assistant to the president for domestic policy and the special assistant to the president and senior associate staff secretary, will be the leading forces in achieving these objectives.
These objectives are, quite frankly, absurd. It cannot be claimed that American history is devoid of racism or oppression. This being discussed is not an attempt to deface the American nation, only a truth to bring understanding and connection to the American people.
As a young, white person who has visited several of the Smithsonian museums, namely the National Museum of African American History and Culture and The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, I can speak in part to claims of “improper ideology.”
In the order, it is implied that the current state of the Smithsonian Institution hurts young minds and does not promote American pride. Not once in my life have I felt any fault for the actions of my white predecessors, especially in the cases of oppression in America. Visiting Smithsonian museums did not create nor perpetuate negative emotions towards myself nor the American nation.
It is not “ideological indoctrination or diverse narratives” that hurt our nation and its pride. It is the idea that only one perspective be taught that will destroy America. We are built on varying perspectives, we cannot pretend that American citizens do not have differing opinions.
The demolition of knowledge and truth in the Smithsonian Institution will do nothing to instill American pride, rather sustain the ideologies of white supremacy and ethnocentrism.
All quotes are from the executive order Restorying Truth and Sanitary to American History found on whitehouse.gov. The link to these quotes is as follows: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/restoring-truth-and-sanity-to-american-history/
