For Love of Country
You cannot really love our country if you refuse to embrace its complex history. The Smithsonian gets it. Donald Trump never will.
This is the story of a simple-minded, ill-read man who, handed the levers of power, thinks he knows best about American history and wants to control what every American understands about it. That would be troubling enough, but this obvious racist—whose agenda is fueled by his white supremacist views—also imagines he can dictate how we should love our country.
The malevolence of which I speak is Donald Trump, of course. On Friday, he expanded his attack on the Smithsonian Institution and particularly the Museum of American History with another executive order ridiculously described as “restoring trust.” His order demands that the much-trusted National Park Service install signs on the sidewalks and pathways leading to the museum; these should inform visitors that the museum’s exhibits “should be renovated” and visitors should go elsewhere to find “locations and resources for accurate information regarding America’s history.”
New Mexico Rep. Melanie Stansbury, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight subcommittee on government efficiency, offered this blunt assessment of Trump’s order: It is “one of the dumbest and most bizarre Executive Orders we have ever read.” She went on to call it “clear political overreach, driven by an ideological agenda.”
But neither she nor anyone who’s been paying attention should be surprised. Trump’s order follows a 162-page report released on the 4th of July by the White House Domestic Policy Council condemning the museum’s “ideological capture” that “erases our history.” In the museum’s failure to emphasize “gratitude” and instead pursue a “radical, activist ideology” that encourages citizens “to view their country through suspicion, resentment and division,” the report states, the museum rejects “the noble, honest story of the great country we know and love.”
Uh-huh. And what remedy to this supposed failure do the Trump enablers suggest?
“As it stands today,” the executive summary concludes, “it would benefit most Americans, especially parents bringing their children for a tour, if the Smithsonian’s flagship history museum had a label at every entrance that reads: ‘Warning: the exhibits in this museum were prepared by people who don’t want you to love your country.’”
Apparently, these authoritarians know better than the historians and curators who’ve dedicated their careers to telling our nation’s story. This report follows Trump whining last August about how “everything discussed” at the Smithsonian “is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was.” Those remarks followed his gaslighting executive order from March 27 last year entitled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” that sought the removal of “divisive or partisan narratives” and the “fostering [of] unity and a deeper understanding of our shared past.”
And what is Trump’s vision for fostering unity? Well, we have seen that play out from the first day he took office: He’s ended federal support for diversity, equity and inclusion; demonized people of color; willfully misconstrued the goal of racial justice as the promulgation of “woke” ideology; pursued a lawless and discriminatory mass deportation campaign terrorizing immigrant communities; attempted to discredit and even drive out women and Black people serving at the highest levels of the military; and much more.
Trump’s Labor Department conveyed his warped idea of “love of country” in its social media campaign last fall. Notice what kind of person is included in his vision and the many that are not:
As the joke goes, I did Nazi that coming.
The Smithsonian’s secretary, Lonnie Bunch, sent a letter to all the institution’s staff after the nasty July 4 report, insisting that it was “not a fair characterization of the work and totality of the National Museum of American History.” And more, “our work is driven by scholarship, accuracy, and an uncompromising commitment to tell the fullness of America’s story. As public servants and the keepers of this institution, we are charged with helping a nation find understanding, hope and clarity.”
His letter—intended to uplift employees feeling besieged by a hostile Trump regime—was backed up by an Economist/YouGov survey published last August. The national survey found that most Americans (60 percent) think the government should not control the exhibits in museums it funds.
Indeed, “A large majority (84 percent)) of Americans say it's very important for history and cultural museums to accurately represent American history. Majorities also say this about highlighting historical struggles and injustices (61 percent), highlighting American achievements (61 percent), and addressing sensitive topics such as slavery, racism and inequality (60 percent).” The survey also found that most Americans who actually visited the Smithsonian disagreed with Trump’s complaints.
Last week Democrats on the Committee on House Administration issued a 16-page rebuttal to the White House addressing its efforts to “seize control of the Smithsonian and rewrite American history.” They noted that the Smithsonian does not answer to Trump, but rather to its Board of Regents and to Congress.
“President Trump is abusing the power of the White House to pressure one of America’s most respected cultural institutions into political obedience,” New York Rep. Joe Morelle, the top Democrat on the committee, said in a statement. “The Smithsonian was established as an independent institution precisely so no president could dictate how our nation's story is told.”
It’s particularly worth hearing from Philip Kennicott, the art and architecture critic of The Washington Post, who reminded his readers yesterday that he’s visited the Smithsonian hundreds of times over the last 25 years. Responding to Trump’s order to install signs outside, he wrote, “Visitors who pass these signs on the way into the museum may find them concerning; when they pass them on the way out, they will probably find them laughably at odds with what they have just experienced…For a museum that is so relentlessly negative in Trump’s eyes, I’ve witnessed a surprising amount of joy among the crowds who flock there.”
Kennicott also offered a particularly sensitive reminder about how this latest planned attack by Trump will cause harm to the many public servants simply trying to do their job:
Lost in this new effort to rewrite American history scrubbed of its invigorating, infuriating, thrilling complexity, is the emotional toll it takes on people who serve the institution. I am sorry that the scholars, curators, volunteers, security guards and the rest of the loyal staff will have to pass signs that demean the integrity of their work. The contents of the museum, the history it explicates, will prepare them for this attack, which is yet another ugly facet of America’s long history of denialism.
But this is what Trump does: He demeans experts and demonizes institutions he wants to control. Forget “love of country.” Forget “fostering unity.” Instead, we can expect more politicizing of respected nonpartisan institutions like the Smithsonian and the National Park Service—all for the purpose of rejecting the beautiful, complex and diverse history of our beloved country.
This latest attack on our national memory is pitiful. It showcases Trump’s weakness. It reveals how a simple-minded authoritarian believes that he can deny us the truth and stunt our will. In 98 days, on Nov. 3, we can prove how wrong he is.
For further reading on this topic, check out my essay “The Trump Regime’s Racist Agenda” from last August. It includes the wise words of Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative and is involved with two important Alabama museums that document the history of slavery and lynching in America. “We still live in a country where there is this problem of racial inequality, racial injustice,” he told me, “and the narrative that created that problem of racial difference continues to haunt us today.”
Save the date for the next Six Questions with Steven Beschloss for a vital conversation about the continuing epidemic of gun violence:
Value the writing and analysis here? Please consider becoming a paid subscriber for $50 a year or just $5 a month, if you’re not already. This helps sustain and expand the work of America, America, keep nearly all the content free for everyone and give you full access to the comments sections.
This is a beautifully written piece about not only our story, but the time in which we are living. We cannot capture history; we can only record it and think about it in all its complexity and nuance. We can learn from its patterns and try to heal the wounds we have created by seeing them and resolving to do better. We cannot see clearly to march sensitively and purposefully into the future without acknowledging even the most bitter lessons or we risk bumping repeatedly into the same painful consequences. Such actions are childish at best, malevolent at worst.
I have often said that Trump is metaphorically a bull in a china shop. He barrels through with no thought as to the destruction he leaves behind. He cares not. To him, our history is just so much junk. He finds anything that is complicated too hard to grasp. He loses patience. He must destroy the thing, the idea, the person, that rankles him; that shows his incompetence and lack of understanding. If he can’t buy or sell it, it has no worth. We all know that the transactional nature of his presidency defines it. So much for thoughtful consideration of anything. Those pesky ideas and unpleasant historical reminders get in the way. They disturb the ‘beautiful’ simplicity of his notion of the arc of history. As in the tale of Hansel and Gretel, he wants us to leave our collective history and find our way out of the woods by pebbles he places along a path he determines.The trouble of course, is that those pebbles lead to our destruction. We cannot allow this to happen. The keepers of our museums must not allow this to happen. We must continue to remember….actively and purposefully.
But make no mistake. He is not a passive observer of history. He is creating the most disturbing chapter yet…and if he thinks that we will whitewash this one he is sorely mistaken. We, The People, will NOT forget. At least I pray we won’t. Our whole future as a country depends on preserving with fierce independence that collective memory. Remembering is a verb.
“Let’s Go.”
Steven, thank you for your morning gift of another reminder that Trump is not only bonkers, but also a white supremacist.
Imagine the chutzpah of believing his knowledge of our country is superior to the dedicated folks guarding and honoring the institution and its positive and negative actions of our country.
Trump wants to switch from Truth to Sturdy White Boy. While our faux president views this image as tough and appealing, those of us with brains and hearts gag.
Small-minded, heartless, idiotic Trump believes sickening labels enroute to the oft-honored institution will enhance the experience for visitors.
The only change that will enhance anything in our beloved and endangered country is to send this maniac-in-chief to jail. Alas, fellow inmates are not likely to appreciate his history lessons. Pumelling may commence.