The Trump administration has launched a comprehensive attack on the Smithsonian Institution, demanding the removal of exhibits that present diverse perspectives on American history. In a letter sent to Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III on August 12, the administration announced its plan to replace all exhibits deemed "divisive or ideological" with what it considers "historical and constructive" descriptions. Just nine days later, on August 21, the White House published a detailed list of the targeted exhibits, with the majority focusing on displays that highlight Black, Latino, and LGBTQ perspectives on American history.
The administration's list of objectionable exhibits includes several that present uncomfortable truths about America's past. Among the targeted displays is an exhibit that accurately depicts Benjamin Franklin as an enslaver, an art installation that acknowledges race as a social construct, and a display highlighting racist voter suppression measures throughout American history. These exhibits represent efforts to present a more complete and honest account of the American experience, including the perspectives of marginalized communities that have historically been excluded from mainstream narratives.
This assault on the Smithsonian represents part of a broader attack on democratic institutions and values currently unfolding across the nation. The targeting of museums and educational institutions occurs alongside other concerning developments, including the federal occupation of Washington D.C., crackdowns on free speech on college campuses, the targeting of Trump's political opponents, and systematic gerrymandering efforts. These elements form an interconnected web of attacks on democratic norms and institutions that threatens the foundation of American democracy.
While many concerned citizens are focused on what they perceive as more immediate threats to democracy, dismissing the attack on museums and historical memory as a mere distraction would be a critical mistake. Trump's assault on American museums, education, and collective memory, combined with his weaponization of racialized resentment to package authoritarian sympathies as patriotism, represents a fundamental dimension of fascist strategy. The fight for democracy cannot ignore these cultural battles, as they create the conditions that enable broader authoritarian control.
Fascist movements throughout history have consistently included a central cultural component, relying heavily on the construction of a mythic past to justify their ideology. This mythic past serves a crucial function in fascism by enabling and empowering a sense of grievance among dominant racial or ethnic groups whose support is essential for the sustainability of the authoritarian project. In the MAGA worldview, this mythic past was supposedly pure, innocent, and untainted by the leadership or significant contributions of women or Black Americans.
According to this distorted narrative, the nation was once truly great as a direct result of the achievements of men from the dominant racial group. From this perspective, racial equality represents a fundamental threat to the story of national greatness, because acknowledging the contributions and humanity of marginalized groups undermines the myth of white male supremacy. To accurately represent the nation's founding figures as complex and flawed human beings, as any honest historical account must do, is perceived within this ideology as a form of treason against the mythic narrative.
The success of fascist dismantling of democratic institutions depends heavily on the widespread failure to recognize these interconnected attacks as part of a larger, coordinated assault. The anti-woke campaign that serves as a key pillar of Trumpism contributes to this failure, partly due to racial blind spots and persistent ambivalence among too many leaders in media and other influential positions. Those who support attacks on "wokeness" while considering themselves opponents of other fascist elements operate under the dangerous misconception that these projects can be separated from one another.
In reality, the dismantling of democracy and the rollback of racial justice are symbiotically intertwined phenomena. Supporting one inevitably provides cover and legitimacy for the others, creating a mutually reinforcing cycle of authoritarianism. The Trump administration clearly understands this relationship and deliberately weaponizes racist appeals as a foundational element of its broader fascist agenda. What was once communicated through coded language and dog whistles is now explicitly stated in official government documents.
In an executive order issued on March 27, 2025, titled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History," Trump reveals that his mandate to ban "improper ideologies" specifically targets core commitments that repudiate scientific racism and challenge historical narratives that naturalized racial hierarchy. According to the administration, the primary problem with the Smithsonian American Art Museum's exhibit "The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture" was that it promoted the scientifically accurate understanding that race is a human invention rather than a biological reality.
The recognition that race functions as a social construct rather than a biological fact represents perhaps the most fundamental intellectual advance in repudiating the historical justifications for enslavement, genocide, and segregation. Rejecting the false claim that racial inequality is natural or divinely ordained—a belief that historically grounded systems of enslavement and dispossession in America—forms the cornerstone of modern commitments to creating a fully inclusive democracy. Trump's declaration that this cornerstone principle is "improper" represents a deliberate effort to turn back the clock and upend the entire American postwar project of expanding civil rights and democratic participation.
The ideological framework that Trump promotes bears striking similarities to well-known strands of fascism, particularly Nazism, which also relied heavily on pseudo-scientific racial theories to justify persecution and genocide. The connection becomes even clearer when examining specific decisions about what materials are deemed acceptable versus unacceptable: Maya Angelou's works have been purged from the Naval Academy library while Adolf Hitler's writings remain available. This stark contrast reveals the true nature of the administration's ideological priorities and historical preferences.
The fight against fascism in the United States must be as robust and unwavering in its embrace of racial equality as Trump's movement is in its embrace of outdated and dangerous ideas about race and racism. Defending historical memory, promoting truthful education, and insisting on telling the complete American story rather than ascribing historical agency solely to the deeds of great men is absolutely vital to preserving and strengthening the American democratic project. A genuinely pro-democratic education system fosters the civic agency of all citizens by teaching about social movements that successfully overturned entrenched hierarchies, challenged systems that blocked democratic equality, and resisted racial tyranny.
The stories of how ordinary Americans from all backgrounds lived, struggled, organized, and fundamentally remade American society represent essential knowledge for developing and sustaining a successful multiracial democracy. The Smithsonian Institution has served as a vital resource in making this comprehensive knowledge accessible to millions of Americans from all walks of life. The National Museum of the American Latino and the National Museum of the American Indian, for example, provide artifacts and perspectives about the nation's westward expansion that directly challenge romanticized myths of unoccupied territory and manifest destiny.
Similarly, the National Museum of African American History and Culture brings forward crucial information about the global scale of enslavement and its deep infusion throughout American national institutions, cultural practices, and political structures. These museums enable visitors to grapple honestly with the brutality and injustice that characterize significant portions of the American legacy while also exposing citizens to the people, institutions, and strategies that charted different courses toward becoming a more perfect union.
Fascist erasures like those promoted by the Trump administration consistently hide behind the false claim that truthful encounters with the past inevitably inflame divisions and create social conflict. This defensive instinct represents the complete opposite of the truth about how healthy democracies function. A genuinely functioning democracy does not restrict historical perspectives to those of the dominant group, and it certainly does not make it illegal to teach alternative viewpoints or acknowledge uncomfortable historical realities.
A people who cannot honestly remember and learn from their past are ultimately a people who cannot effectively resist a fascist future. Deep knowledge of American history, including its darkest chapters and greatest triumphs, can provide citizens with the intellectual weapons and practical wherewithal necessary to battle Trump's efforts to drag the nation backward to a time when the vast majority of Americans lacked both the civic and economic power that they possess today. The fight to protect museums and preserve accurate historical memory represents a critical bulwark against the continued unraveling of American democratic institutions and values.
It is absolutely vital that Americans fight to protect these irreplaceable repositories of knowledge, culture, and collective memory before it becomes too late to preserve them. The stakes in this cultural battle are not merely academic or symbolic—they are fundamental to determining whether future generations of Americans will inherit a democracy capable of acknowledging its full history while continuing to expand opportunities for all citizens, or an authoritarian system built on myths, lies, and the systematic exclusion of inconvenient truths about the American experience.
