Trump's war on the Smithsonian echoes the fight over its founding

Trump’s war on the Smithsonian echoes the fight over its founding
Thanks to states' rights politicians, the institution nearly never existed in the first place

By Austin Sarat
Published August 22, 2025 6:30AM (EDT)




(Salon) For more than a decade I have served on the board of trustees of the public library in the progressive town where I live and work. When I joined the board, our usual business was pretty straightforward; it was hardly the kind of stuff that put anyone on the frontlines of the culture wars.

That now seems like another lifetime.

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In an article posted on its website on Thursday, the White House targeted five of the Smithsonian’s museums for their exhibitions and content: the National Museum of American History, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Museum of African Art and the American Art Museum. It also called out two institutions that have yet to be constructed: The National Museum of the American Latino and the American Women’s History Museum, highlighting comments by the latter’s former director Lisa Sasaki that it would include transgender women.

Much of the article’s criticism of what the administration has called the Smithsonian’s “woke” messaging centered on race, slavery, immigration, LGBTQ identity and people with disabilities. First on its list was a series at the African American History and Culture museum that, the article said, attacked whiteness and “featured content from hardcore woke activist Ibram X. Kendi.” An exhibition of the American Latino museum, it said, “characterizes U.S. history as rooted in ‘colonization.’” The National Portrait Gallery and the American History museum were heavily criticized for their LGBTQ content.

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But in a preview of what is now unfolding, the Smithsonian became caught up in its era’s defining political and cultural conflict: The battle between federalists and advocates of states’ rights, many of whom were vocal defenders of slavery.

South Carolina Sen. John C. Calhoun, an ardent defender of states’ rights and slavery, argued there was nothing in the Constitution that gave Congress the power to establish a national cultural institution. Massachusetts Rep. (and former President) John Quincy Adams described Smithson’s bequest as “one of the noblest benefactions ever made to the race of man,” and he led the fight in Congress to accept it. ..................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/08/22/trumps-war-on-the-smithsonian-echoes-the-fight-over-its-founding/