DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus White House report brands Smithsonian leadership as radical activists who can’t be trusted

The report comes as Trump wages an aggressive campaign to overhaul some of Washington’s most sacred cultural and historic institutions.

A White House report brands the leadership of the Smithsonian Institution, especially at the National Museum of American History, as radical activists who cannot be trusted, indicating that President Donald Trump may be preparing to install his own team.

The report released late on Independence Day by the White House Domestic Policy Council comes in the midst of Trump’s aggressive campaign to overhaul some of Washington’s most sacred cultural and historic institutions. Trump in March revealed his intention to force changes at the Smithsonian Institution with an executive order that targeted funding for programs that advanced “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology,” as he continued a broadside against culture he deems too liberal.

“The Smithsonian Institution, and the National Museum of American History in particular, under its current leadership and current interpretive ideology, cannot be trusted to tell America’s story honestly and in a way that is inspiring, unifying, and worthy of our great republic,” according to the report by the council, which is led by a former top Trump speechwriter.

The authors added: “As this report shows, confirmed in the words of Museum leadership, this ideological capture has moved the Museum’s mission away from straightforward historical education and scholarship toward an extreme political activism that seeks to transform our country.”

The Smithsonian did not immediately respond to requests for comment Sunday.

Historian Lonnie Bunch, the Smithsonian’s current secretary, is the first African American to lead the institution. In an unrelated interview that aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Bunch said “the notion of being a more perfect union, not the perfect union, is really what motivates me.”

“I think what I want people to understand is that there is a responsibility to continue to make those aspirations available, accessible, meaningful to a whole range of people,” Bunch said. “And that, in essence, America’s greatest strength, it’s not running away from its history, but it’s understanding how that history shaped us and continues to shape us.”

Historian Anthea M. Hartig is the first woman to serve as director of the National Museum of American History.

Trump’s escalating effort to force changes at the Smithsonian marks the Republican president’s latest move to transform cultural pillars of society, such as universities and art, that he considers out of step with conservative sensibilities. Trump had himself installed as chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with the aim of overhauling programming, and his handpicked board voted to add his name to the building, only to have a federal judge later order the signage to be removed.

The administration also forced Columbia University to make a series of policy changes by threatening the Ivy League school with the loss of several hundred million dollars in federal funding.

Trump has also imposed changes on historical sites beyond Washington, including in Philadelphia, where the administration won a court ruling last week allowing it to reinstall interpretive panels that critics say whitewash the history of slavery at the site of President George Washington’s home. Advocates, academics and officials have been concerned for months that the version that complies with Trump’s order could give a history that plays down the pain in the nation’s past in favor of a more triumphant view.

Gov. Josh Shapiro, D-Pa., accused Trump and his allies of trying to “rewrite history.”

“There’s not one individual narrative that a president gets about our history,” Shapiro, a potential presidential prospect, said in an interview that aired Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “And any president should want to make sure that that full history is shared, that the American people are able to draw their own conclusions.”

Shapiro added, “If we understand where we came from, we’re going to have a better path forward.”

Trump’s Domestic Policy Council does not necessarily agree.

The National Museum of American History “confronts visitors with materials intended to undermine faith in American institutions and the longstanding shared ideals of the American people,” the council’s report said. “We must be committed to restoring truth and sanity in how American history is presented and taught.”

In seeking to fulfill Trump’s order, which he called “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” the review concluded by finding that the museum “by the intention and at the direction of current Museum and Smithsonian leadership, has become subject to institutional capture by a radical, activist ideology that is fundamentally opposed to telling the noble, honest story of the great country we know and love.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/tr...dership-radical-activists-can-rcna353090

Rewriting and omitting the parts of history that aren't flattering is not history. It's whitewashing history to selectively tell the parts of it you want known while erasing the parts you wish to keep hidden.

We don't want communists running these institutions. It's a good job King Trump will remove them. They should count themselves lucky if they are allowed to stay in the county5

rump stated that renovations funded by Congress will not move forward unless his name is allowed to return to the building, warning the center could remain closed indefinitely..........

Kennedy Center will close for renovations after judge blocks returning Trump’s name to building

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump-aligned Kennedy Center board voted Tuesday to close most of the iconic performing arts venue just hours after a federal judge blocked the institution from returning President Donald Trump’s name to the building.

In a social media post, Trump said the closure was needed for safety repairs. But he said the repairs, which Congress has allocated $257 million to cover, would only happen if the board was allowed to move forward with plans to add his name to the building. A federal judge has twice said that can’t happen without the approval of Congress.

“Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing,” U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said in the latest ruling Tuesday.

The Justice Department appealed the ruling. Trump, who was named the Kennedy Center’s chairman last year by loyalists on the board, participated in the virtual board meeting and said on social media he’d given $17 million to an endowment intended to support the institution.

The meeting included testy exchanges at points between Trump and Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who has led the campaign to block efforts to memorialize the president at the Kennedy Center. At one point, Beatty referred to Trump as someone who caused “extreme harm,” according to a participant in the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Trump said Beatty was “incompetent” and “holding up everything.”

“You’re holding up the whole country,” she responded.

White House spokesman Davis Ingle said, “Trump-deranged Dumocrats like Joyce Beatty oppose anything that celebrates the greatness of our country because they put America Last.”

Kennedy Center fans worry about possible demolition

The developments threw into limbo the fate of one of the nation’s most prominent cultural institutions, a place where presidents, lawmakers and celebrities of all political ideologies have gathered for decades to recognize and celebrate the best in American arts and culture.

The venue’s leaders have argued that the massive building, which began construction in 1965, was in dire need of renovations. A partial ceiling collapse in the building’s main hallway earlier this month intensified the calls for renovations.

“The building is not currently built to last, the chairman knows that because he is among the best builders in the world,” Brian Ballard, Kennedy Center board member, said in a statement.

But Trump’s insistence on a physical recognition of his work on the building, reminiscent of his tendency to add his name to buildings as a real estate developer, has been a persistent sticking point — alienating many of the institution’s longtime supporters and facing repeated legal roadblocks.

The fight over the Kennedy Center marks a rare setback in Trump’s second term bid to dramatically remake the nation’s capital in his gilded tastes. He’s demolished the East Wing of the White House and is replacing it with a ballroom and plans to build a triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery. He’s also eyeing a golf course renovation along the Potomac River.

The Kennedy Center board voted in August to inscribe his name on the Kennedy Center’s facade so it would read “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.” If the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reached $100 million, another inscription would be added reading “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”

The plaza in front of the Kennedy Center would also be renamed in Trump’s honor.

Cooper ruled in May that the Kennedy Center illegally added Trump’s name to the building, ordering it removed. The institution’s leaders complied in June but left a tarp and scaffolding in place where Trump’s name was once displayed.

Hanging over the hearing was the prospect that the administration may seek to demolish the Kennedy Center. In a filing last month, administration lawyers told the court that absent recognition of the president, the Kennedy Center would struggle to raise money for renovations. Without that money, they suggested, the building may need to be demolished, a prospect that alarmed some given Trump’s swift moves last year to dismantle the East Wing.

The Kennedy Center, the lawyers argued, “will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down, with a determination to follow on what to build on the site, such as a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River that has been proposed, by some, for many years.”

https://apnews.com/article/kennedy-...-ruling-1dfbfaac695f6817719477101b971a54

Narcissist man child throws temper tantrum again with use of bribe.......

I watched the interview with Ms. Beatty.

Trump is such a punk.

His behavior is like a child brat. Astounding that someone like him is president.

Trump says he will stop the renovation to The Kennedy Center if is name isn't on it. Now he is saying if it isn't renovated it will probably be demolished. Remember, this is money already approved and allocated by congress for the restoration of the Kennedy Center. A sitting president has decided he has the power of the purse to override congress.

This is now who and what the republican party is now. If not anyone has the power to speak up but they aren't and if precedent is any indication they probably won't. Their specialty instead is to shoot the messenger.

Trump Plans to Place Warning Signs Outside Smithsonian Accusing Museum of Biased View of U.S. History: Report

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s letter says visitors should be given additional context about the museum’s exhibits about the nation’s past

The Trump administration is moving forward with plans to place temporary warning signs outside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, adding a new chapter to the White House’s dispute with the institution over how American history should be portrayed.

The National Park Service is expected to install roughly a dozen signs outside the museum at an estimated cost of about $84,000, according to a Sept. 3 letter from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to Sen. Jeff Merkley, obtained by The Atlantic.

The project follows President Donald Trump’s July executive order directing the administration to install temporary signage and exhibits connected to the museum.

In another letter to Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Burgum addressed questions surrounding Trump’s March 2025 executive order, titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”

The order accused a nationwide “revisionist movement” of portraying the United States’ founding principles and major historical achievements in a negative way, arguing that such efforts diminish the country’s accomplishments, according to The New York Times.

The signs have not been finalized, and their exact wording remains unclear, the Times reported.

Burgum’s letter offers a preview of the administration’s intended approach. It says visitors should receive additional information about the exhibits before entering the museum, including context about the perspectives of Smithsonian officials and curators.

The administration has repeatedly accused the museum of presenting American history through an ideological lens. A White House report released earlier this year made similar allegations, arguing that certain exhibits and educational materials reflect political viewpoints rather than what the administration considers a straightforward account of the nation’s history.

The Smithsonian, for its part, has defended its approach as grounded in scholarship, accuracy and nonpartisanship.

National Museum of American History Director Anthea Hartig has told lawmakers that the museum does not take sides in contemporary political debates and instead seeks to preserve evidence of American life so visitors can form their own conclusions.

Burgum’s letter specifically highlights statements made by Hartig and former Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch. It also references museum exhibits and educational materials dealing with subjects including race, immigration and transgender Americans.

The administration’s criticism comes as Trump and his allies have pushed for broader changes across the Smithsonian.

If the plans proceed, visitors approaching the National Museum of American History could soon encounter government-funded signs offering a critical perspective on the museum before entering.

https://people.com/trump-plans-to-place-warning-signs-outside-smithsonian-museum-report-12124293

I wonder if a court stops the posting of these signs if he'll threaten to demolish the Smithsonian Institute as well?