https://youtu.be/Pd0dCw-Wh1k?si=wIfMDB2ZaoF5Tw50

Why Trump Wants to Gut American History From the Smithsonian | Explainer

Does this surprise you? For me, nothing orange jesus does anymore is a surprise. After all, he is a war hero.

quote:

Does this surprise you?

Surprise may not be the right word. Enlightening might be a better word.

The video does help understand what this is about.

It's too easy to just dismiss this as another Heritage Foundation goal, woke or DEI or whatever.

This has deep ideological and worldview roots, socially and culturally. Everybody has their place in society, and mobility has been taken for granted.

The American Dream. Who defines it nowadays?

See the tagline below for relevance.

Weird... hey, qq
Who's the only US president with no known family ties to slavery

Having just walked through every floor of every Smithsonian museum…it needs attacking.

Teddy is rolling in his grave.

Bout time we start learning the public about the benefits of slavery and quit harping on how bad it was. After all, the plantation owners valued the slaves, and provided food, clothing, shelter, health care and vital skills that could be utilized after emancipation.

It is all about how you view history.

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:
Having just walked through every floor of every Smithsonian museum…it needs attacking.

Teddy is rolling in his grave.

Sure, you did. You and your imaginary buddy from DC?

The mapped indoor spaces of the Smithsonian total more than 2.7 million square feet.

quote:

Originally posted by Mike Mitchell:

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:
Having just walked through every floor of every Smithsonian museum…it needs attacking.

Teddy is rolling in his grave.

Sure, you did. You and your imaginary buddy from DC?

The mapped indoor spaces of the Smithsonian total more than 2.7 million square feet.

You fucking asshole. You fancy yourself as being tough. I hope one day to give you the chance to call me a liar to my face.

I was in DC for 2 weeks with a lot of time to kill between meetings. You want to see my credit card receipts from the Jefferson Hotel?

Why don’t you comment on things you actually know about? Wait…that would be nothing and not suitable for your loud vulgar mouth.

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:

You fucking asshole . . .

. . . suitable for your loud vulgar mouth.

. . . pot meet kettle.

By the way, I know a couple of guys that are security guards at the Smithsonian and they said they don't recall you being there long enough to cover much of the museum.

3 ellipses in one post! …just fantastic…keep it up…let’s get nuts…take it up a notch…Merica

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:

quote:

Originally posted by Mike Mitchell:

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:
Having just walked through every floor of every Smithsonian museum…it needs attacking.

Teddy is rolling in his grave.

Sure, you did. You and your imaginary buddy from DC?

The mapped indoor spaces of the Smithsonian total more than 2.7 million square feet.

You fucking asshole. You fancy yourself as being tough. I hope one day to give you the chance to call me a liar to my face.

I was in DC for 2 weeks with a lot of time to kill between meetings. You want to see my credit card receipts from the Jefferson Hotel?

Why don’t you comment on things you actually know about? Wait…that would be nothing and not suitable for your loud vulgar mouth.

President Theadore Roosevelt would not support removing exhibits of Frederick Douglas.

He also disliked being called Teddy.

Again, Dr. Easter side gets fired up when communities decide they do not want to honor monuments to a Slavers Rebellion. However, Federal government erases the history of slavery, race based violence, violence against gay/trans folks, or African American contributions to society, and he is all for erasing history.

Theodore Roosevelt was the first president to invite a Black person to dine at the White House. In 1901, he invited Booker T. Washington to dinner.

President Theodore Rosevelt disinvited a racist Senator from the White House for being a 1900s racist from the South.

https://youtube.com/shorts/fFE...?si=wT9NP9ZkPNC0-X6E

"What I Think I'm Seeing as I’m Watching"

Interestingly, she starts out explaining the difference between feeling and objectivity -- such a liberal thing to do.

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https://www.reuters.com/world/...very-was-2025-08-20/

Trump targets the Smithsonian again, says it focuses too much on how bad slavery was
By Kanishka Singh
August 20, 202512:19 PM EDT Updated August 20, 2025

Excerpt:

The Smithsonian, which was established in 1846 and includes 21 museums and galleries and the National Zoo, had no immediate comment. Most of its museums are in Washington, D.C.

The White House said last week it will lead an internal review of some Smithsonian museums after Trump earlier this year accused it of spreading "anti-American ideology" and raised alarm among civil rights advocates.

When asked if Trump would threaten funding cuts to the Smithsonian based on the findings, a White House official said "President Trump will explore all options and avenues to get the Woke out of the Smithsonian and hold them accountable."

Trump wrote: "The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future."

The Smithsonian receives most of its budget from the U.S. Congress but is independent of the government in decision-making. Civil rights advocates say Trump's administration is undoing decades of social progress and undermining the acknowledgment of critical phases of American history.

https://thehill.com/homenews/a...mithsonian-exhibits/

Trump ignites new culture war battle over the Smithsonian — and slavery
by Niall Stanage - 08/21/25 6:00 AM ET

Excerpt:

President Trump has plunged once more into the nation’s cultural wars — this time with Washington’s famous Smithsonian Institution in his sights.

As is often the case, the manner of Trump’s attack risks significant blowback, even as it delights his fans.

Specifically, in a social media blast about how “OUT OF CONTROL” the Smithsonian allegedly is, Trump contended that its exhibits were excessively focused on “how bad Slavery was.”

Whether that sentiment was clumsily phrased or fully intentional, it ignited a storm because of the implication that slavery was somehow not quite as bad as commonly portrayed.

That being said, there is obviously a political market for what Trump is selling, especially among culturally conservative Americans who feel alienated by society’s liberal shifts in recent decades.

He notably placed his attack on the Smithsonian within the framework of the institution allegedly being excessively “woke”— and insufficiently patriotic.

Despite the nebulousness over what “wokeness” actually is, Trump has used similar charges against leading universities.

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:

You fucking asshole . . .

. . . suitable for your loud vulgar mouth.

. . . pot meet kettle.

By the way, I know a couple of guys that are security guards at the Smithsonian and they said they don't recall you being there long enough to cover much of the museum.

The Mikes! They are like George Constanza…instead of a show about nothing…they do posts about nothing…the tag-team comedy act about NOTHING.

Maybe sometime go an see how many of Teddy’s exhibits are actually left on display in the Smithsonian museums. Teddy and his exploits don’t fit the narrative of the Smithsonian any longer either. Teddy has mostly been sent to storage.

Not all of the Smithsonian museums are in DC. There is at least 1 in NY.

It’s many many years since I was in DC but I throughly enjoyed those that I saw. Things may have changed in 30 something years.

In Detroit, there were 11,000 plus rape kits that were collected, warehoused, and never tested.

Guess what, everyone one of those kits represents a person. Every one of them were a person of color.

Put that in the Smithsonian.

Pick a FUCKWIT, get a FUCKWIT!

Never been to DC.

Have spent a bit of time in NYC at various museums.

It’s easy to go to them and walk through all of the exhibit space if one is not sweating any details. It takes a lot longer to go to one and try and take in most of the exhibits.

As I recall, I went through the modern art museum in about an hour and left. I just didn’t care for the subject. I saw at a glance most if not all the major exhibits… but didn’t really spend any time to get details. I was humoring someone to go, but admittedly went in saying that this was a waste of time.

The natural history museum I was there for over eight hours and didn’t get through every floor. Frankly, I feel I could spend a week there and still be seeing new things.

Dr. E is right that Theodore Roosevelt would be disgusted by the continual attempts to minimize the commonality of Americans and the attempts to subdivide us. He was about American nationalism and the idea that we are a melting pot of cultures becoming a distinctly American one. How many of TR’s animals that he took on safari are still exhibited?

One of my relatives went to the DC Smithsonian as a chaperone. They were unimpressed with what the museum was trying to emphasize. He wanted to see some of the older exhibits and was told they had been placed in storage because they needed the space for new attractions… that were very DEI inclusivity type things. His comment was some of that may be a good idea, but not at the expense of our common heritage items.

Personally, I don’t have an issue with a portion of an exhibit about the White House being about the building of it, and a part of that being the role of slaves in building it. I do have a problem with the whole exhibit being “slaves built the White House.”

I’d agree with the position that Trump is incapable of having a nuanced understanding of the subject, but frankly the folks running it have lost the plot the opposite way nearly as bad.

quote:

Originally posted by LHeym500:
In Detroit, there were 11,000 plus rape kits that were collected, warehoused, and never tested.

Guess what, everyone one of those kits represents a person. Every one of them were a person of color.

Put that in the Smithsonian.

Why behind closed doors at the Smithsonian? Why not duct tape all 11 thousand to the outside of the Washington Monument?

Fuck you're an idiot.

Scott,
he's impervious

Geez, which party runs Detroit?

Which party is running Michigan?

Who is the AG/County Attorney in Wayne County?

And this is something that DEI is going to solve?

You seem to be making the point that the process and prosecutorial discretion doesn't work.

quote:

Originally posted by LHeym500:
In Detroit, there were 11,000 plus rape kits that were collected, warehoused, and never tested.

Guess what, everyone one of those kits represents a person. Every one of them were a person of color.

Put that in the Smithsonian.

Smithsonian is a museum in part to tell our history. Let it be told there, here, and anywhere how we treat thousands we deem not worth as much.

You two fools did not know that happened, and could care less.

You two are idiots.

No persons who were white had their rape hits in Detroit not processed.

A local a prosecutor found out. Forced the kits processed. Everyone of them despite government objection.

Congress passed funding that states and communities now use to prevent this kind of backlog in Detroit.

Trump’s Minister of Propaganda cannot change that we have done a horrible job telling how we have failed our morals. Hiding it does not help.

The option of the Texas Contingent member who called a monument to violence against gay and trans people that was white washed by this Regime as a fable means only enough to rebut.

quote:

Originally posted by LHeym500:
Smithsonian is a museum in part to tell our history. Let it be told there, here, and anywhere how we treat thousands we deem not worth as much.

You two fools did not know that happened, and could care less.

You two are idiots.

No persons who were white had their rape hits in Detroit not processed.

A local a prosecutor found out. Forced the kits processed. Everyone of them despite government objection.

Congress passed funding that states and communities now use to prevent this kind of backlog in Detroit.

Trump’s Minister of Propaganda cannot change that we have done a horrible job telling how we have failed our morals. Hiding it does not help.

The option of the Texas Contingent member who called a monument to violence against gay and trans people that was white washed by this Regime as a fable means only enough to rebut.

And you think any of that merits a Smithsonian exhibit.
Lunacy.

D.C monuments and museums should be dedicated to an emphasize American success, virtue and resolve. Dedication.

The Vietnam memorial is an easy example. Those Americans who fought and died in Vietnam were a waste. The policy was wrong the procedure was wrong, the sacrifice, loss and national defeat was wrong. Regardless, 60 thousand Americans did their duty for their country and died for their virtue and that's the one and only purpose of the memorial.
The soldiers the common men and women who fought and died in Vietnam should be memorialized without criticism.

Washington and Jeffersons memorials should not mention their slave ownership, if Adam's had a memorial it should not mention his Alien and Sedition act.

I'll be doubled dawned if I ever agree to a Smithsonian exhibition for Detroit rape kits or a national recognition of queers fighting cops in New York.

So, Scott, you agree that this is about the culture war, about who gets to define what American is about, perhaps most importantly - who doesn't.

See my Orwellian quote below. And see the video in the OP.

BTW, "a Smithsonian exhibition for Detroit rape kits or a national recognition of queers fighting cops in New York" removed, either one, could provide some space for a Tampon Tim exhibit.

quote:

Originally posted by nute:
Not all of the Smithsonian museums are in DC. There is at least 1 in NY.

It’s many many years since I was in DC but I throughly enjoyed those that I saw. Things may have changed in 30 something years.

They have…tremendously.

Larger my first the better in spite of the reactions the fake conservatives.

quote:

Originally posted by LHeym500:
Larger my first the better in spite of the reactions the fake conservatives.

i pressed #1, i expected english

quote:

Originally posted by Magine Enigam:
So, Scott, you agree that this is about the culture war, about who gets to define what American is about, perhaps most importantly - who doesn't.

See my Orwellian quote below. And see the video in the OP.

BTW, "a Smithsonian exhibition for Detroit rape kits or a national recognition of queers fighting cops in New York" removed, either one, could provide some space for a Tampon Tim exhibit.

No, I think it's made it clear that the American monuments and museums should feature all Americans.

A fraction here and a tiny minority there is not national. The Vietnam War was all 50 states and every single living breathing American.

Scott, I read your reply several times, pausing on the context of several words, and your framing.

That's not for the purpose of criticizing, but to try to figure out your mind-set.

You framed it:

"American monuments and museums should feature all Americans."

"A fraction here and a tiny minority there is not national."

"...every single living breathing American."

So, you seem to be saying that "national" or what being American is might exclude minority. You limit it to "a fraction", but what if the minority was 49 percent?

And who is the arbiter? Who decides, what minority is and what to include as exhibit or memorial or history and how it's framed - the narrative?

Could it be the person or party currently holding political office, and control of funding?

Big picture - what do you think the odds are that Trump and regime are being objectively all-American about the Smithsonian or practically anything?

You may be correct, but is Trump and the Heritage Foundation worthy to speak and deem correctness for all Americans?

You may say, but look over there, at the liberals. Well, I don't recall the liberals censoring the Smithsonian.

After all, minority if not juxtaposed with majority, neither exists, which is exactly All American