One thing that President Donald Trump has become known for since taking office for his second term is signing executive orders. As of now, he has already signed more than 100 of those executive orders, and he just signed a new one.
The newest executive order signed by US President Donald Trump is to ‘restore truth and sanity to American history’. This is following some controversy all executive orders, including one on how the American election should be run and others, such as renaming the Gulf of Mexico.
On March 27, another executive order was signed, that demanded the ‘restoration of Federal parks, monuments, memorials, statues, markers’. It also said that the Smithsonian should celebrate American history and greatness.
According to the White House website, the latest order is directing Vice President JD Vance as a member of the Smithsonian Board of Regents. He will be tasked to work to ‘eliminate improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology from the Smithsonian’.
The Smithsonian is a group of museums and educational complexes located near the mall in Washington DC. The national zoo is also included in the grouping.
In the order, the administration is tasked with working with Congress to ensure that ‘future Smithsonian appropriations prohibit funding for exhibits or programs that degrade shared American values, divide Americans by race, or promote ideologies inconsistent with Federal law.’ It is also to ”celebrate women’s achievements in the American Women’s History Museum and do not recognize men as women’.
The secretary of the interior is also mentioned in the order. They are directed to ‘restore Federal parks, monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties that have been improperly removed or changed in the last five years to perpetuate a false revision of history or improperly minimize or disparage certain historical figures or events’.
Many people are wondering why the Smithsonian is being targeted in this executive order. This is due to something that former US President Joe Biden’s administration did and is included under the subheading, ‘Combating Corrosive Ideology’.
It says that the administration of former US Pres. Joe Biden, ‘pushed a divisive ideology that reconstrued America’s promotion of liberty as fundamentally flawed, infecting revered institutions like the Smithsonian and national parks with false narratives’.
The executive order also talks about how the Smithsonian was at one time revered throughout the world as a symbol of American excellence. In the executive order, it says that the Smithsonian has ‘recently promoted divisive ideology that American and Western values are harmful’.
There are some exhibitions and examples of what would be included under divisive ideology. This includes the American Art Museum, which has an exhibit that ‘purports to address how ‘sculpture has been a powerful tool in promoting scientific racism’. It also says that the United States has used ‘race to establish and maintain systems of power, privilege, and disenfranchisement’ to the ‘American Women’s History Museum[‘s] plans to celebrate male athletes participating in women’s sports’.
In the order, Trump is committed to celebrating America’s greatness. He is also committed to ‘building a sense of national pride.’
The order was signed as a way to ‘ensur[e] that American history is celebrated accurately, fairly, and with pride—honoring the remarkable progress, liberty, and ingenuity that define our great nation’.
