President Donald Trump criticized the Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, saying the institutions were “out of control” and the “last remaining segment of woke.”
In a post to Truth Social, Trump accused the museums of paying too much attention to the negative aspects of American history, particularly the institution of slavery.
“Everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been,” he wrote. “Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.”
Trump encouraged the museums to showcase a more optimistic view of the United States and its history, one that’s in line with an executive order Trump issued in March. That order called for a purge of “divisive narratives that distort our shared history” from the quasi-independent museums. It tagged Vice President JD Vance and tasked him with removing “anti-American ideology” from the museums.
On Tuesday, Trump drew a line between his museum moves and recent battles with universities over their curricula.
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“I have instructed my attorneys to go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities where tremendous progress has been made,” he wrote. “This Country cannot be WOKE, because WOKE IS BROKE. We have the ‘HOTTEST’ Country in the World, and we want people to talk about it, including in our Museums.”
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