Featured Image Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, US News, Joe Biden
Poppy Bilderbeck
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, US News, Joe Biden
The US President has signed off on an executive order to 'restore truth and sanity to American history'.
Since being sworn in as the 47th President of the US, Trump has signed a staggering number of executive orders (EO) - totalling over 100 so far.
Just a few days ago, the POTUS signed an EO concerning the running of American elections, which has been widely criticized.
He's also put out EOs to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, an order eradicating the Department of Education, and one that could have a massive impact on medical patients.
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And yesterday (March 27), he signed off on another demanding the 'restoration of Federal parks, monuments, memorials, statues, markers' alongside ensuring the Smithsonian 'celebrates American history' and 'greatness'.
The White House's website states the order as directing Vice President JD Vance - 'as a member of the Smithsonian Board of Regents' - to 'work to eliminate improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology from the Smithsonian' - the Smithsonian being a group of museums, education and research centers - alongside 'the National Zoo'.
The order also directs the Administration to work with Congress to ensure the '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' and 'celebrate women’s achievements in the American Women’s History Museum and do not recognize men as women'.
The order doesn't just impact museums and centers either, also directed the 'Secretary of the Interior' 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'.
But why is the order targeting the Smithsonian Institution?
Well, under the subheading 'Combating Corrosive Ideology,' the order alleges that former US President Joe Biden's administration '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'.
And despite 'once [being] revered throughout the world as a symbol of American excellence,' the Smithsonian 'has recently promoted divisive ideology that American and Western values are harmful'.
It goes on to list several exhibitions or examples of such 'divisive ideology' from the American Art Museum featuring an exhibit that 'purports to address how 'sculpture has been a powerful tool in promoting scientific racism' and claims that the United States has "'sed 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'.
The order resolves Trump is 'committed' to 'celebrating American greatness' and 'building a sense of national pride,' signing the order 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'.